The number of employees in the Croatian manufacturing industry is decreasing by 150 daily, and if urgent measures to combat the crisis are not implemented by the end of the year, more than 50,000 industrial jobs could be lost, emphasized the leaders of the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) at today’s press conference.
Vladimir Kovačević, director of the Cro Industry association within HUP, presented HUP’s package of urgent measures to save industrial jobs, which calls for equalizing payment deadlines between the private sector and the state and public sector, as well as obligations of these sectors towards the private sector. Among other things, it proposes paying VAT on collected revenue, deferring corporate tax payments, returning customs payment deadlines from 10 to 30 days, reprogramming industry obligations to HBOR, and establishing an intervention guarantee fund through which companies affected by the crisis could receive guarantees for loans from HBOR and commercial banks.
The introduction of a non-working Friday was also mentioned, which would reduce labor costs by 20 percent, while the state, employers, and unions would pay workers 60 percent of their salary for the lost workday, with the state waiving taxes and contributions. According to research conducted by HUP among 117 industrial companies, 83 percent of them feel the effects of the global crisis in market loss, 59 percent have financing problems, and 16.2 percent face liquidity issues. One-third have reduced the number of employees, 39 percent have frozen salaries, 14.5 percent have reduced them, 45 percent have cut marketing and research costs, and 30 percent have lowered their product prices.
