Labour and Pension System Minister Mirando Mrsic has announced the government's proposal for amending the Labour Law (ZOR) after its consultations with social partners in order to improve employability of the jobless.
The existing ZOR is incomplete in its segment about employment, as evidenced by the latest figures showing that employment on fixed term contracts has become the rule. Over 150,000 people have been employed in the last year on fixed-term contracts, and only 10,000 were awarded contracts for employment on a permanent basis, Minister Mrsic said during his interview in a Croatian Television current affairs talk show on Sunday.
By amending the ZOR, we want to promote work-at-home jobs, half-time employment, working for more than one employer, he added.
Commenting on the negotiations with public-sector trade unions, Mrsic said that the government had decided to terminate the Basic Collective Agreement for public service employees due to the deteriorating economic situation, emphasising that the current government is adamant not to buy the social peace through new borrowing.
He accused the previous government of having signed untenable and immoral agreements with some of the public-sector unions.
"We will sit at the table with unionists of state employees next week and appeal for a sensible solution as there is no money for (what the previous government signed)", he said.
As for threats from trade unions of teachers in primary and secondary schools and in tertiary education and the nurses' trade union about strikes, Mrsic said that it was their legitimate right, warning, however, that during the cancellation period of the Basic Collective Agreement, which runs until 19 December, strikes could not be held.
"I hope that we will sign a new Basic Collective Agreement with a new negotiating team from the public sector trade unions until then," the minister said.
Concerning a recent statement by Finance Minister Slavko Linic about downsizing the public sector employees by 20,000, Mrsic said that would be conducted through "a socially sensitive model" of sending people into retirement.
The labour minister said that the public administration "needs ventilating".
He said that with Croatia's admission to the European Union, scheduled for 1 July 2013, a part of Croatian doctors and nurses would move into countries that would offer higher wages, as it was the case with Poland. The example of Poland shows thar those people will start coming back to their homeland when its situation starts improving resulting in higher salaries, Mrsic said.
