New Labor Law in the Second Half of the Year

Minister of Labor and Pension System Mirando Mrsić stated today that he hopes that the bipartite negotiations between employers and unions regarding the second phase of amendments to the Labor Law (ZOR) will be completed by March 15, so that the new ZOR can be adopted in the second half of the year.

Mrsić, after discussions at the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK), refused to comment on the positions of employers and unions during the ongoing negotiations regarding the amendments to the ZOR, but noted that the president of the Council of Members of HUP, Ivan Miloloža, denied a statement that raised the most public outcry, regarding employers allegedly seeking to include weekends and holidays in annual leave.

Amendments to the ZOR are necessary because this law must correspond to the current moment and dynamics of the economy, while also providing protection to workers, who are the weakest link, and simultaneously enabling the restructuring of the economy, emphasized Mrsić.

He reminded that the first phase of amendments to the ZOR is nearly completed, as all three social partners agreed on the content of the amendments, ‘which shows that we can reach an agreement quickly.’ The agreed amendments are now going to the European Commission, and after that to the Government session and the Croatian Parliament, so Mrsić expects them to be adopted by the end of March.

Part of these amendments relates to alignment with EU directives, while the rest concerns the regulation of fixed-term work, replacement leave, overtime hours, probationary work, and collective layoffs of surplus workers.

Mrsić announced that representatives of HOK will also be included in the discussions about the second phase of amendments to the ZOR, and the president of HOK, Dragutin Ranogajec, stated that craftsmen are employers, which means that their demands will also be similar.

In response to a journalist’s question about the number of unemployed, currently registered at 373,441 at the employment office, the minister said that seasonal employment will soon begin, so the number of unemployed will start to decrease, but this will not be a permanent decline in unemployment.

We expect a higher number of open job positions by the end of the year compared to previous years, which is also evident in the data from January showing that more jobs have been opened than last year. However, this will only slow down the growth of unemployment, and a significant reduction in unemployment will be seen when GDP growth exceeds 2 percent, noted Mrsić.