Kalmeta: No bonuses, Christmas gifts, and children’s gifts in public companies

The government will convene a meeting this week with the management of public companies and request that they begin negotiations with their unions regarding the proposal that this year no bonuses, Christmas gifts, or children’s gifts be paid, announced the Minister of the Sea, Infrastructure, and Transport Božidar Kalmeta after today’s session of the Economic-Social Council (GSV).

The unions of public and state services, from which the government is asking to renounce bonuses, Christmas gifts, and children’s gifts this year in order to save 640 million kuna, responded that they are willing to discuss this if public companies are also included in the savings. “Our position is that their position is fine, and therefore we will invite the management of public companies this week to open negotiations with their unions and agree that Christmas gifts and bonuses will not be paid this year,” Kalmeta told reporters.

However, this is not agreed upon by the Vice President of the GSV from the unions, Zdenko Mučnjak, who believes that it is not good to create uniformity and equate all public companies, some of which operate entirely in the market. Instead of linear measures, negotiations should be conducted with each company individually to reach an agreement that should satisfy both sides, Mučnjak asserted. He also disagreed with the employers’ representative Ivica Mudrinić, who, commenting on the latest data on more than 318,000 unemployed, identified rigid labor legislation as one of the biggest problems that needs to be made more flexible to encourage employment.

The so-called rigid labor legislation has the least impact on the increase in the number of unemployed, claims Mučnjak, as evidenced by recent amendments to the Labor Law by which Croatia aligned itself with the legislation of European Union countries. Given that we now have aligned laws, the same unemployment problems should be faced by EU countries, and we know that some of them have begun their recovery after applying different measures than Croatia, Mučnjak emphasized, adding that it is high time to start reducing costs that burden the real sector.

Mudrinić, on the other hand, emphasizes that in addition to “detecting the situation and some form of incentives,” the government should initiate projects through ministries that will encourage employment within six to nine months. The head of HUP also agreed with the assessment made today in Opatija by the governor of the Croatian National Bank, Željko Rohatinski, that Croatia is entering a period of stagnation, adding that “we have not seen a turnaround” in economic policy. There is no doubt that the state of the economy remains concerning, and a significant recovery is not visible as we are behaving as we did five or six years ago, asserted Mudrinić.

Minister Kalmeta announced that the government will soon come out with new measures and noted that the upcoming tourist season should bring improvements. However, all social partners agree that a tripartite social agreement should be reached for better resolution of unemployment issues and, in general, to exit the crisis. The GSV session considered the proposal for a new law on HRT, and unions and employers warned that public television does not have a clear concept of how it will achieve its two main goals – informing and educating. The report on the work of the State Inspectorate in the previous year was also accepted, according to which inspectors went out into the field 130,000 times and collected more than 30 million kuna in fines.  (H)