The Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) said on Tuesday they support changes to pension insurance law which now allow hiring of pensioners for part-time work, with them retaining the right to full pension.

HUT said in a press release that a large number of vacancies in the tourist industry could be filled in with senior citizens who wish to work even after they retired, and added that the new provision might “significantly” help the sector prepare for the next summer season.

“People who live close to places with open vacancies always had priority in employment, and importing workers works as a solution only when the domestic labour market cannot meet the needs of the economy,” they said.

Recent changes to the law on pension insurance allowed pensioners to work up to four hours per day with the ability to continue claiming their pensions. Until now, working a job and receiving state pension had been mutually exclusive.

Croatia has one of the largest pensioner populations per capita in Europe, with about a quarter of its four million population in retirement. At the same time, it is experiencing an accelerating population drain due to increasing numbers of relatively young Croatians emigrating to wealthier EU countries.

“Pensioners who wish and can work, could be very valuable for businesses, because their work and life experience allows them to adapt quickly to the job at hand, and they can also serve as a source of know-how to younger employees,” said head of HUT and former Tourism Minister from 2011 to 2013, Veljko Ostojic.

The ageing population and mass emigration have created shortages on the labour market, forcing the government to increase its annual quotas for hiring non-EU nationals sevenfold over the past three years, from 9,000 in 2017 to 63,600 in 2019. Some of the sectors hit by shortages of workers include tourism and construction.

In addition, the government sponsored a bill which was passed by parliament in late 2018 which allowed pensioners to earn income in addition to their pensions, as a way of alleviating the labour shortage, which some estimates say could add some 300,000 part-time workers to the labour force.

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