Zagreb, 15 September – UATUC President Ana Knežević has sent to the Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor a response on the Agreement on Social Partnership proposed by the Government. “Agreement on Social Partnership for Overcoming the Crisis is not acceptable for UATUC in the content and timeline proposed by the Government. We are not ready to sign a document that will enable all parties to continue functioning as they did until now”, stated Knežević.

UATUC is however open for the dialogue and ready to actively participate in formulating the policies which will put country on the right track. As responsible social partner, we are ready to take part of the responsibility proportional to acceptance of measures proposed by UATUC, but we can not accept responsibility for the economic and social consequences of Government’s unilateral decisions.

UATUC has been warning for quite a time on unacceptable formal social dialogue, in which we are regularly informed and invited to attend meetings, but in the end our concrete proposals and argumentative warnings on possible consequences of certain legal proposals are not taken seriously into account, says Knežević.

Finally, UATUC emphasises that signing the Agreement must be preceded by the dialogue and consensus of the social partners and the Government on the type of social relations we want to develop. UATUC 2006-2010 Programme states that UATUC will advocate “the Nordic type of capitalism”, in which worker is regarded as value, and not expense. For such model we need a Government that will appreciate work equally as the capital and adequately promote the development of real social values.