The teachers' union Preporod is the first Croatian union to win a court case against the government, union leader Zeljko Stipic said at a press conference in Zagreb on Saturday after the Zagreb Municipal Labour Court has ruled that in 2007 the government negotiated with an illegally formed team of negotiators representing public-sector unions.
The lawsuit was filed in 2007 after the government of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor ignored repeated demands from the Preporod union to be allowed to participate in collective bargaining as provided for under the Labour Act, Stipic said.
The court made the ruling about 10 days ago, ordering the Republic of Croatia to pay Preporod 20,000 kuna in compensation for the damage done to it and to publish the ruling in the newspapers.
Stipic said that as soon as the ruling became final the union would pay the full amount into the state budget. "We don't need money from the state budget, because it is taxpayers' money. We just want to show that laws exist to be complied with and not to be broken," he added.
