Caution! 060 agencies do not offer jobs, but high phone bills

Anyone who has ever searched for a job, sooner or later, having exhausted all backup sources, has tried to find work in one of the editions of paper or online classifieds. Although at first glance everything seems legitimate, before you start calling the phone numbers listed with the ads, we advise caution!

Written by: Mislav Nekić
[email protected]

We investigated the background of several seemingly attractive ads. We were drawn to the offer from the agency Mega bar d.o.o, published in the online edition of Plavi oglasnik (www.oglasnik.hr) on September 3, 2010: ‘The agency urgently seeks a larger number of drivers Tel: 6.88/mob: 8.28kn/min, Mega bar doo, B.Trg 6, Zg, OIB:94278219163, 5522581, Tel. phone: 060/660-000’. In addition to drivers, they are also looking for fruit and vegetable pickers, office cleaners, café and business space cleaners, construction workers, delivery personnel, girls for babysitting and caring for the elderly, while others who do not fall into any of the listed categories are classified by the agency as ‘freelance collaborators’. In short, a list of the most sought-after professions for job seekers with secondary vocational education, categorized into several different ads. At first glance, nothing suspicious or illegal. The agency does exist and is registered in the court registry for employment mediation. We investigated the background of the whole story.

I dialed the agency’s number. Before the operator answered, a voice machine warned me that a minute of conversation would cost me 6.88 kuna. After the warning, a lady, by my estimate, of middle age took over. A pleasant voice asked me how I was, and after a few informal sentences and stolen minutes, the agency’s presentation began, which took a few more minutes. I learned that it is a private agency that covers the entire Croatia and finds employment for various profiles of people. After I left my resume, presenting myself as a professional truck driver with ten years of experience in a forwarding company with international experience, nervously glancing at the clock knowing that the machine was eating up my kuna, I asked the voice on the other side to get to the concrete offers. It started listing, and since I encountered a ‘pro’ for impulse theft, after ten minutes on the line, I settled for three offers (the names of the companies are known to the editorial office). Unsatisfied with my determination to end the impulse theft, the interlocutor told me that there were more offers, that it cost me nothing if I wrote down the contacts. I persisted and ended the conversation after about ten minutes.

I spent 68.8 kuna, and all I learned were the names and surnames and phone numbers of the references from the Croatian Employment Service to which the Mega bar agency referred me. When I asked whom to refer to and whether to mention that they recommended me, the operator, clearly surprised by my question, said not to mention it as it was not important for getting employment. What is common to all the offers I received is that alongside the publication on the HZZ’s website, identical offers can be found on the portals Posao.hr and MojPosao.net without their knowledge. This was a signal for alarm for me. Enough to ask myself: Is this another scam?

Matijana Blašković, spokesperson for the Croatian Employment Service, told us that they have no cooperation agreement with the company Mega bar and that it is clear that this is a phone scam. She noted that they cooperate with the portals Mojposao.net, Posao.hr, and Biram karijeru in such a way that they take ads from their website, state the source from which the ads were taken, and most importantly, that they do not earn money from the published ads.

Experts from the MojPosao.net portal said that they too have been victims in a similar way, from the company Mačje oko, which advertised itself as an employment mediation agency against which they filed a complaint with the Ministry of Economy, Labor, and Entrepreneurship because the mentioned company read job ads published on the MojPosao.net portal to job seekers. -In some cases, by calling the ‘060 number’, interested candidates were directed to the official phone number of the MojPosao portal, which is in no way connected to the mentioned job ads- explain the experts from the MojPosao.net portal. The Ministry of Economy confirmed to us that they received a complaint during 2010 regarding the so-called employment agency with an ad on the 060 number. After it was determined that the company did not have a license to perform that activity, a lawsuit was filed against it in the Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb. They emphasize that performing the activity of employment mediation via 060 numbers is prohibited.

Despite this, the company Mega Bar d.o.o received a license from the same Ministry, raising questions: How is this possible? and If it has already received a license, who controls its operations? This is not the only illogicality in the whole story. The regulation on the performance of employment mediation activities, which regulates the work of agencies, states: The mediator can only charge for the services of mediation in employment from the employer. Although at first glance everything seems clear and it appears that job seekers should not be charged for mediation services and that publishing such ads is ultimately unprofessional, the same regulation states: Advertising offers and demands for performing jobs and services through print, electronic media, and the internet is not considered employment mediation in the sense of this Regulation.

It follows that a specialized employment agency that employs skilled people cannot charge for such services, while on the other hand, companies specialized in performing, for example, hospitality activities can and do so abundantly through 060 phone numbers in online and printed classifieds. And no one can do anything to them because once they register their activity, no one checks them anymore. If they are accidentally checked and the company is closed, they simply open a new one and start over. And it is questionable who is on the other side of the line and whether they have actually employed anyone.

In conversations with several lawyers, we learned that the mentioned Regulation can be interpreted in various ways. One of the most common interpretations is that companies instead of a fixed phone number for contacting their company list the 060 number, which is legal. However, in that case, regardless of which media they advertise in, according to the Consumer Protection Act, they must state the price of the call, the name and full address of the company, a fixed phone number for contact and/or complaints from end users, and the company’s registration number. The problem is that none of them list a fixed phone number along with the 060 number. Also, the content provider is obliged by the same Law that when advertising 060 numbers related to content, price, or purpose of the numbers, they must not mislead users in any way. Whether the company Mega bar deceives users, you can judge for yourself.

Considering all of the above, judge for yourself who operates legally and who profits from stealing phone impulses? The only advice we can give you is to think twice before calling suspicious 060 numbers from various classifieds. Look for more information about the agency online and check whether they are registered for the activity they perform. If you call and someone offers you a job, ask for additional information about the employer. Any redirection to references from the Croatian Employment Service is a sign of alarm.