New Labour Act Comes Into Force

Both employees and employers in Croatia will be governed under new laws from today, when the new Labour Act comes into effect…

A number of changes have been made, much to the dismay of trade unions and employers’ associations. Under the new Labour Act the working week can now be extended to 50 or 60 hours if it is defined by a collective agreement. Other changes include the ability for employers to pregnant workers redundant if the business is about to be liquidated, the ability to sack an employee during a period of probationary employment if the worker is not up to scratch, and the removal of the one-month waiting period before workers are able to launch strike action over nonpayment of wages.

There are also new laws for employment agencies under the new act. Agencies will pay contributions on the minimum wage for their temporarily workers during the period that they are not hired, but not pay their wages, whilst if one of their clients has a permanent work contract then they are forced to pay the average quarterly wage to a non-hired worker.