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Croatia - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Zagreb

 

CLIMATE

Mediterranean and continental. The continental climate is predominant with hot summers and cold winters. Along the coast, Croatia has mild winters and dry summers.

 

LANGUAGES

Croatian (96%), other (4% including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German).

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Based on civil law system.

 

CURRENCY

Croatia Kuna (1 USD = 8.72320 HRK as of March 15, 2002)

 

CROATIA - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

CROATIA - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U. S. Embassy at Zagreb

Andrije Hebranga 2

Zagreb, Croatia

Telephone: [385] (1) 661-2200

Fax: [385] (1) 661-2373

http://www.usembassy.hr/

 

Embassy of the Republic of Croatia at Washington D.C.

2343 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20008

Telephone: (202) 588-5899

Fax: (202) 588-8936

http://www.croatiaemb.org/

 

CROATIA - HOLIDAYS

 

CROATIA - LEAVE

Annual Leave: Minimum 18 days paid annual leave each year.

 

Maternity Leave: Minimum 6 months leave (after the child is born).

 

CROATIA - MINIMUM AGE

The minimum age for employment of children is 15 years. Children may not be employed before reaching the legal age and are not allowed to perform work that is harmful to their health or morality.

 

Workers under the age of 18 are entitled to special protection at work and are prohibited from heavy manual labor and night shifts.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Croatia – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

CROATIA - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

In 1999 the Government signed a collective bargaining agreement establishing a minimum wage of approximately $210 (1,700 kuna) per month.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Croatia – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

CROATIA - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

CROATIA - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a.  The Right of Association

 

Workers are entitled by law to form or join unions of their own choosing without prior authorization, and workers exercise this right in practice. There is an active labor movement with one major and four minor national labor federations and an independent association of both blue- and white-collar members. Approximately 64 percent of workers are members of unions. In general unions are independent of the Government and political parties.

 

During the year, labor unions protested the Government's drafting of a new labor law without input from labor organizations; a new drafting process was underway at year's end to include union participation.

 

The Constitution provides for the right to strike with some limitations. Members of the armed forces, police, government administration, and public services are not permitted to strike. Workers only may strike at the end of a contract or in specific circumstances mentioned in the contract. The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that workers may not strike for nonpayment of wages; however, amendments to the labor law, adopted in March, specifically addressed this ruling and entitle workers to strike for nonpayment of wages.

 

When negotiating a new contract, workers are required to go through mediation before they can strike. Mediation is not required if the strike is not over a new contract. However, postal employees successfully held a strike in December over their new contract without resorting to mediation and obtained commitments from the Government to continue working on their collective bargaining agreement. Labor and management choose the mediator together. If they cannot agree, the Labor Law calls for the "Economic and Social Council" (GSV) represented by the Government, labor, and private sectors, and headed by a labor professional, to appoint one. The GSV met 4 times during the year regarding labor disputes, and its independent mediators successfully mediated in 20 labor disputes. In October the Government established an "Office for Social Partnership" to support the work of the GSV, which also fosters dialog on issues of interest to the three participating parties. Only after submitting to mediation and formally declaring that negotiations are at an impasse is a strike legal. If a strike is found to be illegal, any participant may be dismissed and the union held liable for damages. No strikes were found to be illegal during the year. The law prohibits retaliation against strikers participating in legal strikes.

 

During the year, authorities permitted labor demonstrations both in Zagreb's main square and in front of the Parliament. Farmers in Eastern Slavonia staged several demonstrations over nonpayment for their produce. In June nearly 10,000 public sector workers in Zagreb protested new wage scales implemented by the Government without consulting the union. In July steelworkers in Sisak held a 6-week strike to protest nonpayment of wages. In August the Government announced a series of layoffs in the national police force that prompted scattered protests across the country, especially in areas of high unemployment such as Karlovac and Bijelovar.

 

Unions may affiliate freely internationally. For example, the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia is a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

Collective bargaining is protected by law. The Labor Code governs collective bargaining contracts, protection for striking workers, and legal limitations on the ability of employers to conduct "lockouts" during labor disputes. However, during the year, the Government acted to block the signing of already-negotiated collective agreements for state-owned companies and to halt negotiations on such agreements where they were in progress. Negotiations were in progress between management of the Croatian Electrical Company (HEP) and the Croatian Post Office (HP) when the Government issued instructions to management to suspend talks, allegedly in order to wait for the conclusion of agreements with all public employees, and with the expectation of a substantial reduction of their salaries. After the public sector negotiations were completed, the Government instructed HEP and HP managements to resume negotiations. In the HP case, employees went on strike in December and won the right to sign the agreement that was under discussion when the Government ordered talks suspended. The HEP negotiations had not resumed by year's end.

 

The nonpayment of wages continued to be a serious problem; over 80,000 workers (6 percent of the work force) failed to receive their salaries on time. When salaries were not paid, associated contributions into the social welfare system also lagged, and unpaid workers were denied health coverage. In June the Constitutional Court ruled that workers and their families could not be refused medical benefits, even if employers failed to pay their contributions into the health system.

 

Under a 1999 agreement, the Agreement for a More Just Croatia, the Government is obliged to consult with labor unions before announcing economic reforms that would result in changes in worker benefits and layoffs; however, unions complained that the Government did not follow this agreement in practice.

 

The Labor Code prohibits anti-union discrimination, and it expressly allows unions to challenge firings in court. Unlike in previous years, there were no reports of systematic firings on grounds of ethnicity during the year. Unions reached an out-of-court settlement on severance pay and back wages on the 2000 Magma case, in which workers continued to protest the firing of the union president, executive board, and three union organizers from the company by its co-owners, a U.K based investment company and the Minister of Economy and his wife. Generally citizens' attempts to seek redress through the legal system were hampered seriously by the inefficiency of the court system, where cases often languished for months or years before reaching a final resolution (see Section 1.e.). Vladimir Harjac, who was fired in 2000 for union activities, was reinstated during the year; however, Dragutin Varga's case remained unresolved at year's end.

 

There were no export processing zones.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The Constitution prohibits forced or compulsory labor; however trafficking in women for prostitution was a problem (see Section 6.f.). The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare is responsible for enforcing the ban on coerced or forced labor.

 

The Constitution does not specifically prohibit forced or compulsory labor by children; however, there were no reports that such practices occurred.

 

 d.  Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment 

 

In July the Croatian Parliament ratified ILO convention 182 prohibiting the worst forms of child labor. The minimum age for employment of children is 15 years, and it is enforced by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. Children may not be employed before reaching the legal age and are not allowed to perform work that is harmful to their health or morality. Workers under the age of 18 are entitled to special protection at work and are prohibited from heavy manual labor and night shifts. There is no reported pattern of the abuse of child labor laws.

 

The Constitution does not specifically prohibit forced or compulsory labor by children; however, there were no reports that such practices occurred.

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

In 1999 the Government signed a collective bargaining agreement establishing a minimum wage of approximately $210 (1,700 kuna) per month; the minimum wage is not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. In May the government Bureau of Statistics estimated that the average monthly net wage was approximately $418 (3,500 kuna). In April the Government unilaterally implemented new wage scales for public sector workers without consulting unions.


 
In June the Labor Law was amended to shorten the workweek to 40 hours from 42 hours. Workers are entitled to a 30-minute daily break, a 24-hour rest period during the week, and a minimum of 18 days of paid vacation leave annually. Workers are entitled to receive time-and-a-half pay for any hours worked beyond 40 per week.

 

Health and safety standards are set by the Government and are enforced by the Ministry of Health. The law allows unions to appoint health and safety stewards in companies, but their activities are not regulated by collective agreements. In practice industries are not diligent in meeting standards for worker protection. For example, it is common to find workers without hardhats on construction sites and for workers to remove safety devices from dangerous equipment. Under the law, workers may remove themselves from hazardous conditions at work and have recourse through the courts if they believe that they have been dismissed wrongfully for doing so. There were no reports of wrongful dismissal complaints over workplace safety during the year.


 
f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The law does not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons, although other existing laws may be used to prosecute traffickers; trafficking in women was a problem. Little statistical information on trafficking exists, although U.N. officials tracking the issue regionally and local research indicate that Croatia is primarily a transit country for women trafficked to other parts of Europe for prostitution, as well as a lesser country of origin and destination country for trafficked women.

 

Police failure to identify trafficked women among illegal aliens smuggled into the country and shortcomings in the readmission agreement with Bosnia, which puts police under pressure to process and repatriate illegal migrants within 72 hours after their initial arrest, resulted in a significant underestimation of the trafficking problem in the country. Women from Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and other countries reportedly were trafficked through Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia to Croatia, where some remained to work as prostitutes or were trafficked to other destinations. Women are transported through the country by truck or boat. In addition women from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia were detained in incidents of illegal entry into the country; some of these women were believed to be victims of trafficking. Anecdotal information indicates that international organized crime groups are responsible for trafficking.

 

Although there is no law specifically prohibiting trafficking in persons, trafficking can be prosecuted under laws prohibiting slavery, the illegal transfer of persons across state borders, international prostitution, or procurement or pimping. However, police awareness of the problem is low, and the police are not trained or encouraged to identify and document possible cases of trafficking. Police are reluctant to acknowledge that trafficking in persons might occur in the country. Victims are not encouraged to take legal action against their traffickers. According to the Ministry of the Interior, from 1998-2000 the Government prosecuted 5 persons under the law prohibiting slavery and 21 persons under the law prohibiting international prostitution. However, no data is available regarding the final disposition of the cases.

 

CROATIA - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

CROATIA - STANDARD WORKWEEK

In June 2001, the Labor Law was amended to shorten the workweek to 40 hours from 42 hours. Workers are entitled to a 30-minute daily break, a 24-hour rest period during the week, and a minimum of 18 days of paid vacation leave annually. Workers are entitled to receive time-and-a-half pay for any hours worked beyond 40 per week.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Croatia – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)