Mandatory membership in the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) will be abolished on July 1 next year

Mandatory membership in the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) will be abolished from July 1, 2014, and not as previously announced from January 1, 2015, said today the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Crafts Gordan Maras while presenting the final proposal of the new Crafts Act, which should be submitted to the Government in the next two weeks.

The abolition of mandatory membership will allow more than 82,000 craftsmen to decide for themselves whether they want to be members of the chamber or not, Maras said.

He stated that the abolition of mandatory membership is one of the most important innovations from the proposal of the new Crafts Act.

Other innovations in the proposal include the transfer of the craft during the craftsman’s lifetime, the right to financial compensation for the unemployed, the institute for assisting the family household of the craftsman (family members will be able to assist the craftsman without establishing an employment contract and without the craftsman being present, but they must have certain qualifications for performing the craft), the abolition of the list of activities that can be performed as secondary occupations, benefits for individuals registering a craft in areas of special state interest, etc.

The goal of the law, they emphasize from the Ministry, is to create a legislative framework that will stimulate the development of crafts, enable craftsmen to have an equal position in the market with other economic entities, and give them the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they want to be members of HOK or not.

In abolishing mandatory membership in HOK, we were guided by the principle that craftsmen should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to pay membership fees or not, Maras reiterated.

He also presented data from a survey conducted by the Ipsos agency on a sample of 800 respondents.

Maras says that these results show that 76 percent of surveyed craftsmen support the abolition of mandatory membership, while 21.7 percent oppose it.

According to the survey, 42 percent of craftsmen would remain in the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK). This is not a bad result, assessed Maras, who believes that HOK will manage to fight for craftsmen.

The survey also showed that 93.2 percent of entrepreneurs support voluntary membership in the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK), said Maras, who believes that HGK also needs to be reformed, that is, to introduce the institute of voluntary membership in the foreseeable future.

Since the Law on HGK is not under my jurisdiction, but under the Ministry of Economy, I will submit that proposal in writing to my colleague Vrdoljak, announced Maras.