"We want to work, but we consider the proposal by CEO Antun Crlenjak that we return to work and that he would give us one overdue salary by the end of the week to be insulting," Krnjak said.

Kamensko workers have not received their salaries for five months now, and their management has not been paying their pension and health insurance contributions and taxes for two years.

The striking women do not expect the employer to give them their overdue salaries and they believe that they will be able to collect their claims only after the company goes into official receivership.

The general strike at Kamensko was organised on Wednesday morning by the national union of workers in the textile, footwear, rubber and leather industries. Union commissioner Ana Gavran said that of the 430 women working at Kamensko, only those on sick leave were not taking part in the strike.

Meanwhile, union representatives have distributed to the workers certificates which they are to expected to show at social welfare centres in order to receive a one-off allowance of around 1,000 kuna.

Representatives of the Economy Ministry and the government's Social Partnership Office promised at a meeting with Kamensko workers on Monday to expedite a request to social welfare centres to pay a one-off allowance to the strikers, and to try and organise a meeting with representatives of banks, the Zagreb Holding company and the tax authorities.

Banks will be asked to stop, for a certain period of time, sending warnings to Kamensko workers and charging them for unpaid loan instalments. Zagreb Holding, a company comprised of a number of utility companies owned by the City of Zagreb, will be asked to tolerate the workers' not being able to buy bus and tram tickets, and the tax authorities will be asked to expedite the payment of tax return to some of the workers.

After the Monday meeting, 20 Kamensko workers who last week went on a hunger strike decided to stop the strike, warning, however, that in case those promises were not fulfilled, all workers would go on a hunger strike.