Croatia Actions

SMH-IS: On 3 October in conjunction with the World day for Decent Work (WDDW).  IndustriALL affiliate SMH-IS (Trade union of metal workers of Croatia – Industry trade union) held a press conference in Zagreb, on industry and insecure employment.

Vedran Dragičević, president of the SMH-IS, said that “industrial activities have not been going in the right direction, and that as a result 110,000 jobs were lost from 2008. There are a smaller number of workers employed in the industry; gross salaries of workers have been reduced, while productivity has increased.

The Ministry of labour and pension system proposes changes in the Labour Law that will not solve the economic situation, but will lead to further job insecurity. The statistics on the unemployment rate can be changed artificially with seasonal work, but the workers will remain unemployed. The SMH-IS believes that investments in shipbuilding, engineering and electro-industry could start the recovery of Croatian industry, and it could be done by appropriately using EU funds.

At the Croatian Employment Office most of the job seekers are from the processing industry, and at the same time, most of the workers needed are in that same processing industry. This is because the employers mostly employ precarious workers (i.e. 92.9% of newly employed workers from the Croatian employment office are employed on contract, ie from a couple of months to a year or two), and the unions are afraid that Croatian workers are on the verge of going to their employer every day and asking if there is some work for them for that day. That is not secure or decent employment. This was the conclusion of the conference.