The Croatian Employment Service has sent a denial regarding the text we published on Thursday in which they ultimately did not deny anything, and which we fully reproduce below in the text.
Namely, we wrote that the initial decision stated that the employer is obliged to maintain the number of employees established on the day of submitting the Application, twice as long as the time of using the support (one month of using the support – obligation to retain workers in employment for TWO months), which can still be seen on the pages of the Independent Croatian Trade Union that published that document. The document shows that the transfer is completely (copy-paste) from the pages koronavirus.hr, which is stated at the beginning of the document itself.
The HZZ did not deny this but stated that 'The condition for the prohibition of hiring new workers during the duration of contractual obligations was changed at the meeting of the Management Board on March 26, 2020 in order to make the conditions of use more flexible for employers and not to hinder potential growth of business activities'. Although it was changed, it is evident that it was published before that and that it was communicated to entrepreneurs in that way.
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HZZ’s Response:
The Croatian Employment Service informs the public that the condition for retaining workers for whom the employer has been granted and paid the Aid for preserving jobs in sectors affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19), in employment after the expiration of contractual obligations has never been prescribed.
– The criteria for the Aid for preserving jobs in sectors affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) as well as changes to the criteria are determined by the Management Board of the Institute and are publicly available on the official pages of the Institute. The establishment of criteria for the use of active employment policy measures is a complex process and is established in an interdepartmental working group for revising measures, therefore the Institute is obliged to act in accordance with the prescribed – states the HZZ’s announcement.
According to the conditions for using the Aid for preserving jobs in sectors affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19), it is prescribed, they say:
– Employers who had a decrease in the number of employees from March 1 to March 20, 2020, may be granted aid.
– The employer loses the right to aid if from March 20, 2020, until the moment of payment of the aid, they had a decrease in employment greater than:
- 40% for employers who employ up to 10 workers,
- 20% for Small Enterprises,
- 15% for Medium Enterprises,
- 10% for Large Enterprises
In this does not include the expiration of fixed-term employment contracts, the departure of workers into retirement, and termination due to the worker’s misconduct. According to the Contract for the Grant of Aid for preserving jobs in sectors affected by the Coronavirus (Epidemic Disease COVID – 19):
The employer undertakes to retain the number of workers for whom the aid has been paid during the duration of contractual obligations and to immediately or no later than within 8 days notify the Institute if there has been a termination of the employment contract with a specific worker with the exact date and reason for termination.
If the reduction in the number of workers occurred for justified reasons such as: expiration of fixed-term contracts, mutual termination of the employment contract at the worker’s request, personal reasons for termination, retirement of workers, and termination due to the worker’s misconduct, the employer is entitled to payment of the aid for those days the worker worked in the month in which the employment relationship ceased.
– We repeat that the latter condition has been in effect since the beginning of the implementation of the measure and that employers are not required to retain workers after the expiration of contractual obligations. The condition for the prohibition of hiring new workers during the duration of contractual obligations was changed at the meeting of the Management Board on March 26, 2020, in order to make the conditions of use more flexible for employers and not to hinder potential growth of business activities – states the HZZ’s announcement.
The Institute has an obligation to control the workers for whom the employer has received aid. For other workers employed after March 19, 2020, according to the prescribed criteria, the employer cannot receive aid (except in the case of replacement for a justified vacancy of a worker for whom aid has already been received).
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However, the Minister of Labor and Pension System Josip Aladrović said on Thursday that during the receipt of state aid employers cannot lay off workers.
– Therefore, these aids for preserving jobs are still ongoing, they are in effect from March 1 to May 31, and during that period, workers cannot be laid off. We discussed all modalities, however, the Management Board of the HZZ accepted that the measures are consumed for three months and that this is actually the only obligation of employers that exists, along with certain percentages of layoffs that we assessed at that moment to be opportune, and now, with some time distance, we can see that employers did not even use those layoffs – said Aladrović.
Thus, the obligations of employers as such exist while the measures are in effect, added the Minister of Labor.
What is crucial is: on the official HZZ pages HERE in the questions and answers, it states that employers could lay off an employee for whom they received support (for March) in April. Minister Aladrović, however, claims that workers cannot be laid off while the measures are in effect and while they are being received, and the HZZ explains that the obligation to hire during the duration of the measures was changed at the end of March. I believe that everything is now clear to everyone (editor’s note).
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