Some 500 workers of the management board of Croatian Railways' (HZ) Infrastructure division on Thursday staged a protest rally outside the HZ headquarters in Zagreb against the company's plan to lay off a few hundred employees as part of the company's restructuring.

The protestors demanded that the management abandon the plan on the HZ Infrastruktura overhauling which envisages the termination of employment of 1,200 workers.

They also called on the government to make decisions on strict criteria and deadlines pertaining the railway operator's belt-tightening,

Four unions active in HZ staged today's protest after the management board of Croatian Railways' (HZ) Infrastructure division recently announced its plan to lay off about 650 workers, reduce the number of levels of decision-making, and combine a number of organisational units into one.

HZ Infrastructure has 8,194 positions and the new draft organisation plan envisages 6,774. Currently, it has 6,823 employees.