The trade union of Croatian journalists SNH joined other unions in slamming the government's labor bill, saying that some of the new regulations - and especially those related to gig workers - do not "contribute to protecting workers' rights."

SNH said they support the workers and unions who are fighting for the bill to be improved, state agency Hina cited SNH as sying in an unsigned press release.

“While profound changes have been made in regulations at the EU level, to better protect workers’ rights in these new forms of work, such as work through digital platforms, to allow people access to decent jobs, the government’s bill merely makes the current situation legitimate. A situation in which workers’ rights are determined by algorithms. By doing so, the government in advance absolves those invisible employers from any responsibility,” SNH said.

SNH also said that the issue of fixed-term employment is not regulated well in the new bill, because of the large number of exceptions added to the general rule of employers allowed to offer a maximum of three such contracts over a period of three years. The exceptions include work via placement agencies, work on EU projects, or “workers who have a residence and work permit,” Hina cited SNH without clarifying.

SNH said that this means that a large number of workers will still remain unprotected, which also applies to the media sector. They also criticised provisions allowing to increase potential working hours, effectively abolishing the current legal limit of 180 hours per year for any additional work outside 8-hour workdays.

“A worker will be able to work additionally eight, and exceptionally, even 16 hours a week,” SNH said, and underscored that this could affect their living conditions, health and wages of workers and deepen problems related to “the right to weekly and daily rest.”

SNH said they do not agree with the proposed solution for remote work, according to which only workers who work at least 15 days continuously from home will be entitled to compensation, while workers who work from home occasionally or through a remote work contract will not be entitled to compensation for their expenses.

They further noted that the proposed bill does not include protection against the cancellation of employment contracts in case of inability to perform remote work, or the possibility of returning to work at the employer’s premises, and that working from home must be agreed to by the worker.

“We believe that this is not a good solution because there is no legal difference between these two forms of work,” SNH said.