A panel discussion was held in Varazdin on Tuesday on the future of remote work as part of the "Devote - Developing of teleworking future project," as the first of five planned events that are supposed to provide guidelines for Croatia's legislation in that field.

The Devote programme is being implemented by the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) in cooperation with the Oil Industry Union (SING) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise – NHO.

The project is aimed at preparing guidelines through social dialogue for amendments to the legislative framework and the final draft will be presented at the concluding conference in the first half of 2022 and later delivered to the legislature.

Surveys of global trends in the labour market indicate that more than 100 million people around the world work outside office premises. According to the latest Eurostat data, during 2020 only about 1.3% of Croatia’s employed people usually worked remotely where as that rate was 12.3% in the EU. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated that process according to which almost 30% of those surveyed in Croatia had transferred to remote working in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis.

The director of HUP’s regional office in Varaždin, Sanja Ostroski said that the Covid-19 pandemic forced some to work  from home and now we can see what the limitations in the current legislation are, where the challenges are and what can be done to improve that.

HUP Chief Economist and Devote project leader Iva Tomic added that this social dialogue intends to come to a solution because remote working cannot be ignored considering the technology and Covid crisis which accelerated that process. “The legislator is tardy with regard to what is happening in the real world,” said Tomic.

SING legal advisor Anica Feric underscored that remote working during the pandemic saved numerous jobs.

“But it also pointed out certain defaults and shortcomings. Some workers complained of ‘burnout,’ not having any distinction between working hours and leisure time, not having appropriate working equipment. In many cases, remote working was imposed without any mutual agreement,” said Feric.

Henrik Munthe, from NHO, spoke about the Norwegian experience, underscoring that employers will be obliged to counsel workers and ensure written regulations related to remote work and the possibility of inspecting that form of work.

Daliborka Stulic from Croatia’s INA oil company noted the example of good practice in INA during the pandemic because it had introduced a model of flexible work back in 2016. She added that 94% of employees at INA were satisfied with flexible working conditions. She said that short-term sick leave had decreased by 16% and the need for overtime work decreased by 32%.

After Varazdin, the next panel debates as part of the Devote project will be held in Split, Rijeka and Osijek, and the final concluding conference will be held in Zagreb.