Labour, Pension System, Family, and Social Policy Minister, Marin Piletic, said on Thursday that the new labor bill "aims to create a modern labor market" and serves as a response to "the challenges and changes in the market" while also "protecting workers and entrepreneurs," state agency Hina said, without clarifying.

“We want to create a quality framework for the modern labor market. The new bill keeps up with the spirit of the times and responds to the key challenges faced by workers and employers,” Piletic told MPs.

He noted that the amendments included in the bill “are the result of intensive work over the past two years” by various government ministries, in cooperation with social partners. “The bill received 774 comments and 146 of them were accepted,” he said.

“The new labor bill puts some limits on fixed-term contracts, regulates work from home, remote work, and the gig economy. It introduces a new way of performing permanent seasonal jobs, which also includes work on open-ended contracts and the possibility of working legally in the off-season,” Hina said, without explaining any details.

“In addition, workers will be able to work for a second business without the approval of their original employer. We are talking about individuals who want to earn extra money without entering a regulated employment relationship. They will be able to work an extra eight hours a week in addition to their full-time job,” explained Piletic.

In order to encourage people to work longer, the mandated notice period and severance pay are now revoked for workers who meet the requirements for old-age pension. Unionized workers who are covered by a collective agreement will be eligible for more favorable benefits, which supposedly encourages people to join trade unions.

“This is not a suppression of trade unions but quite the opposite,” said Piletic.

Opposition MPs had a number of objections to the bill, saying that the law would not protect workers, but rather “enable even greater exploitation.”

“Additional work is not a matter of desire but of necessity, half of all people employed earn less than 6,300 kuna, and they cannot live on that, so they are looking for extra work. Now, they will be exploited until death instead of being guaranteed a higher salary,” the leader of the Social Democratic Party, MP Pedja Grbin, said.