Three representative railway workers' unions whose members are employees of the HZ Infrastruktura railway company have announced a strike for noon on 25 March, after their talks with the employer on a new collective agreement failed. 

The three unions represent railway workers, train dispatchers and railway infrastructure workers.

The current collective agreement expired on 28 February but is being applied until a new one is signed.

The unions said that they had expressed willingness to discuss the price of labor in the last quarter of 2021 considering the current economic situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s earthquakes.

“Regardless of that, the employer continues to offer HZ Infrastruktura workers only crumbs,” the unions say in a statement.

They note that they demand including non-taxable bonuses in the collective agreement while the employer offers them an annual increase of 1,400 kuna (€185) exclusively through one-off wage bonuses such as holiday allowances and the Easter bonus.

“If that amount is divided by 12 months, we get the shameful and humiliating 116.66 kuna a month, which is an increase of 1.67%, after 14 years during which the wages of HZ Infrastruktura employees did not grow at all,” the unions note, adding that due to procrastination and inefficient negotiating on the part of the employer, they had no other option but to go on strike.

(€1 = 7.57 kuna)