ZAGREB, January 24, 2018 – The director of Uljanik’s Business Information Systems, Hrvoje Markulinčić, said on Wednesday that in the morning the atmosphere in the dock was back to normal and workers were doing their job as usual, after on Tuesday some 200 workers, who were disgruntled by the decision of the striking committee to put the planned industrial action on hold, protested outside the shipyard’s administration office in Pula.
We are happy to see that common sense prevailed, all workers are back at work, Markulinčić said, adding that salaries for December and the Christmas bonuses will be paid by 4 p.m. today.
On Tuesday morning, the unions operating in the shipyard informed the workers that they had relayed their demands to the management and called on them to return to work, which some of them did, while a group of them continued to protest. The striking committee decided yesterday to put their strike on hold for the next 48 hours and if their wages were not paid during that time, they would go on strike on Friday.
The European Commission on Monday cleared rescue aid for the shipbuilder Uljanik in the northern Adriatic city of Pula. “The European Commission has found Croatian plans to grant Uljanik shipyard a State guarantee for a 96 million loan euro are in line with EU State aid rules. The measure will allow the company to meet urgent liquidity needs while preparing a restructuring plan, whilst competition distortions are limited,” a press release said.
The Croatian government authorised the Finance Ministry on 11 January to issue a state guarantee amounting to 96 million euro in favour of the Croatian Postal Bank and/or other commercial banks in the country and abroad for a loan to rescue Uljanik. The guarantee was to become active upon approval by the European Commission.
Upon the announcement of the decision from Brussels, Economy Minister Martina Dalić said that it was a stopgap measure and the ailing dock is now supposed to be restructured.
