All employees at the Autotrolej public transport company in Rijeka can expect a one-off reward payment of 500 kuna (€66) provided that they are holders of a COVID certificate confirming that they have been vaccinated against or have recovered from the disease.

The decision was made by the company’s CEO Alberto Kontus and endorsed by the supervisory board and the trade union.

The spokeswoman for the company, Kristina Prijic, said on Wednesday that the employees without Covid certificates would not be forced to get vaccinated.

However, the decision on the 500 kuna reward was made considering the fact that only 40 percent of the workers at the company have to date been vaccinated and “therefore the reward should also encourage a higher vaccination rate necessary to protect all the employees, particularly bus drivers, and public transport users in Rijeka,” state agency Hina reported.

“The management is aware of the fact that companies with a vaccination rate of above 70 percent will be entitled to full job-retention grants from the government,” Prijic said.

If the vaccination rate is below 70 percent, the amount of grants will be reduced in proportion to the actual vaccination rate, Hina reported.