Labour and Pension System Minister Josip Aladrovic said on Tuesday, after a meeting with trade unions on the Labour Act, that although there were disagreements over work under fixed-term and open-ended contracts, this would not stop them from further talks on improving the law.

The leaders of the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (SSSH), the Independent Croatian Trade Unions (NHS) and the Independent Science and Higher Education Union met with Minister Aladrovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to discuss the new labour bill, the minimum wage for 2021 and Sunday work.

“There are certain points on which we essentially disagree, such as work under fixed-term and open-ended contracts, but this should not stop us as responsible parties from discussing all other issues,” Aladrovic said.

He said that their disagreement on these issues did not mean that they did not agree that they should create a new and better law.

Aladrovic said that both the government and the unions stressed the importance of stepping up collective bargaining by intensifying social dialogue as the best way of dealing with social and economic issues.

SSSH leader Mladen Novosel said that laws in Croatia were changed too frequently and that the Employers Association, whenever it feels the need to change labour legislation, avoids collective bargaining as much as it can.

“We expect the Labour Act to be just a framework and that through collective bargaining we become faster, more able to adapt and more flexible for any change,” he said.

He recalled that Western European countries regulate labour relations through collective agreements while in Croatia there are only two sectoral collective agreements.

NHS leader Kresimir Sever said he believed that making the Labour Act more flexible with regard to open-ended employment would be only a cosmetic change that would negatively affect the status of Croatian workers.

The unions are aware that there are too many fixed-term employment contracts, Sever said, underlining the fact that two years ago, 25% of all people employed had fixed-term employment contracts, and that in the period from 2003 to 2018 that rate grew from 9 to 25%.

“That shows that something must be changed in that regard,” he said, but noted that this should not be done through flexibilisation of open-ended employment contracts because it would only further widen the gap.

Aladrovic said that with regard to flexibilisation, the government was of the view that this was a system of communicating vessels, with the number of fixed-term employment contracts depending on the level of flexibility of termination of open-ended contracts.

He added that the government would adopt a decision on the minimum wage by October 31.