The Zagreb County Court issued on August 7 a temporary decision to ban the planned strike at flag carrier Croatia Airlines, Total Croatia News reported. A final decision is expected on August 8.

The strike was initially planned for July 9, but the unionists agreed to postpone it after their representatives held talks with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic back in July. On August 3, however, the unionists claimed that the prime minister had not fulfilled his part of the agreement. On August 6, the unionists said they would go ahead with the planned strike after talks with the management of the company failed.

If the court rules the strike is legitimate, the temporary decision will be revoked and the strike could begin on August 12, an attorney representing the unionists said.

Croatia Airlines will service all scheduled flights for August 8, namely more than 100 flights, carrying 7,600 passengers, the airliner said as quoted by Total Croatia News.

Trade unions are demanding the appointment of new management which would make it possible to sign a new collective agreement, after the previous one expired in January 2016.

Croatia Airlines said in a statement on August 3 quoted by N1 Zagreb that the company will suffer losses of €800,000 a day during the strike.

"If the Wednesday strike does take place, about 70% of the company's flights with 5,000 passengers will be affected. It's not true that the management did not offer anything — the unions asked for [provisions costing] HRK53mn (€7.2mn), and the management offered HRK13mn," a member of the company's management, Davor Janusic, said.

Croatia Airlines has said that it does not have the financial capabilities to allocate nearly HRK53mn annually, adding that the workers’ trade union ORCA has twice rejected offers of 2.5% wage increases and other benefits.

Croatia Airlines managed to cut its operating loss by 17% y/y to HRK79.6mn in the first half of 2018, according to Total Croatia News. That was the company’s best result in the last four years. The company transported 949,007 passengers in January-June, 5% up on the year. It operated a fleet of 12 aircraft in the period.