The management of the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate has sent the trade unions a list of 447 employees considered redundant, including 68 former executives, the leader of the ZET Union, Drazen Jovic, said on Wednesday.

“The total number of surplus workers is 447,” Jovic told the Croatian state news agency Hina, citing the document that the Zagreb Holding management sent to the unions for comments after the completion of the social dialogue.

The initial number of surplus workers was 544 and was reduced by 97 during the dialogue with the unions.

Jovic said that among the surplus workers were 68 former executives, whose jobs were abolished under the proposed reorganisation plan, 95 administration workers voluntarily decided to accept severance pay, while 284 would be reassigned to “operational tasks”.

Jovic did not discuss the details, such as the names of the employees in question or their jobs, saying that the document was classified “strictly confidential”. He, however, noted that they were political appointees of the previous city administration.

Commenting on the announcements by some of the surplus workers that they would press charges, Jovic said that they would not have support from the unions within the Holding, at least not his. “These are all people who were appointed without the unions’ consent. No one asked the unions about their appointment, and we will not give them legal support.”

The head of the Zagrebparking Union, Darko Kleinberger, said that “80 per cent of those people belong on that list” because they had been hired for invented jobs.

Although they were not critical of the management’s proposal, Jovic and Kleinberger could not confirm whether their unions would respond favourably to the proposal because they were yet to study it.