About 11 percent of Croatia's workforce works remotely at the moment, although the number could rise to 34 percent, it was said at a panel discussion on the future of remote working in Osijek on Tuesday.

The DEVOTE conference (Development of Teleworking Future) was organised by the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP), oil industry unions, and the Norwegian employers’ association NHO.

Even in the pandemic year 2020, when remote working saw widespread use around the world, in Croatia there were only 3 percent of workers who constantly did their jobs remotely, and 8 percent of workers used remote work occasionally – for a total of 11 percent of Croatia’s workforce, state agency Hina said.

“Calculations were presented which indicate how many potential jobs or employees could work remotely. In Europe, that percentage is 37 percent whereas in Croatia it could be 34 percent,” chief economist at HUP and DEVOTE project leader, Iva Tomic, said.

She added that during the coronavirus crisis and the ensuing lockdown, “one of the significant ways to preserve jobs was remote work.”

However, Tomic added, Croatia’s legislation is “fairly rigid and unclear” so HUP is now proposing a special mechanism for teleworking, which could be permanent for companies who opt for this type of work, “or temporary if that is a better option.”

“One way to attract workers, now when there is a shortage of labor in Croatia, is remote work. Employers need to be enabled the simplest and most flexible legislative solutions so that this form of work can be provided to mutual satisfaction for employers and workers but also to bring us closer to European practice,” Tomic said.