uatucUnion of Autonomous Trade Unions of infoN o . 8 N o v / D e c 2 0 0 9 ISSN 1847-2079

Dear readers, In this ISSUE After eighteen months of hard negotiations and consultations the new Labour Code was finally adopted and came into force with the first day of the new year. Despite some improvements, the results are very lim- ited as the Government decided to content with the minimum, even failing to accept well-argued trade union proposals aimed to minimise possibilities of misuse of certain provisions of the law. 2 New Labour Code - only minimal After the turmoil in the Government, and the resignation of the Vice EU standards for Croatian workers Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Labour and Entrepreneurship Mr Damir PolanËec, former Chief Director of the Croatian Employers’ Association Mr –uro PopijaË was appointed new Minister of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship on 19 November. Trade unions did not welcome PopijaË’s appointment, taking the position that portfolio which beside economy also includes labour issues should be given to the person acceptable for both social partners. UATUC renewed its 4 Social Democrat Ivo JosipoviÊ old initiative to dissociate the labour portfolio from economy and form elected new a separate Ministry of Labour, however without success. The opposition Social Democrat Mr Ivo JosipoviÊ has won presiden- tial by a wide margin, basing his campaign on the programme called “New Justice” and uncompromising fight against corruption, stressing his belief that “citizens of Croatia want to live in a country in which work is rewarded and criminal punished, in the country of social security and equal chances”. “I want European 6 Director of Employers’ Association Croatia, European not only by membership in the EU but also by the appointed new Minister of Economy values we stand for - human rights, rights of national minorities, reli- and Labour gious freedoms, democracy and freedom, workers’ rights and social justice, culture, education and protection of environment. UATUC welcomed his election, as his programme and the values he stands for 10 The Government must not be a are also part of the trade union agenda. In fulfilling such programme, stepmother to workers Ana KneæeviÊ promised him unconditional support of the largest in economy Croatian trade union confederation. The unemployment rate in Croatia reached 16.1% - the highest level of unemployment since April 2007. It is foreseen that unemployment 12 “Crisis in Croatia is the will continue to increase with around 300.000 jobless. consequence of our own These are just some of the issues you can read about in this edition mistakes” of the UATUC INFO. Figure of the month: 16.1% Dijana ©obota unemployment rate Head of UATUC International Department [ uatucinfo ] page 2

New Labour Code , 1 January 2010 - With the first day of 2010 new Labour Code entered into force. The law was - only minimal EU adopted by on 4 December standards for 2009, after 18 months of consultations and negoti- Croatian workers ations between the social partners. The new Labour Code brings substantial changes for the workers, especially concerning the regulation of working time and leave. Adoption of the new Labour Code was initiated for the purposes of harmonising Croatian labour legislation with the EU standards, although changes in a number of other provisions which were raising discontent of the social partners were planned too. However, long lasting negotia- tions between trade unions and Croatian Employers’ Association (with Government trying to act as medi- ator but generally supporting the employers’ side) produced only very limited results. Consequently, determined to finally close negotia- tion chapter on social policy and employment, Government decided to send the law to parliamen- tary procedure, leaving all issues not related to harmonisation for further discussion. As in all harmonisation issues that remained open at the time Government decided in favour of employers’ side, four out of five trade union confederations, including UATUC, refused sup- port to the new Law. Attempt to organise demonstrations in front of Parliament during its session on 19 November was prevented by police barricades, as Croatian law forbids public gatherings in front of the Parliament and Government buildings. On 4 December Parliament adopted new Labour Code, although without the presence of the social-democrats and other opposition MPs who refused to participate in the voting and left the session. Although provisions of the new law do strengthen the workers’ Croatian Government rights in some aspects, as a result of adopting EU standards, there decided to content are a number of reasons for concern for the trade unions. As EU with the minimum, directives set only minimal standards of workers rights that mem- even failing to accept ber states must respect, it can be said that Croatian Government well-argued trade decided to content with that minimum, even failing to accept well- argued trade union proposals aimed to minimise possibilities of union proposals aimed misuse of certain provisions of the law. to minimise possibili- ties of misuse of cer- The new regulation of the working time is more flexible, which will allow employers to substantially save on salaries. Although maxi- tain provisions of the mum overtime is reduced from ten to eight hours per week, the law regular working time will now be calculated as four month average, [ ] which means that eight overtime hours worked in one week can be counted (and paid) as normal working time if the worker will work eight hours less in some of the other weeks during the four month period. There have been some improvements in regulation of fixed-term contracts, although they will not be sufficient to prevent misuses of this instrument. Since last changes in the labour leg- islation in 2003, more than 80 percent of newly-employed workers work on fixed-term con- tracts, although law defines it as “exemption”, not a rule. Employment on fixed-term contract will now be allowed for a period of three years maximum (which was so far possible to avoid [ uatucinfo ] page 3 by signing consecutive contract for different job positions) and fixed-term workers will be in every other aspect equal to the ones with permanent contracts. However, trade unions con- sider that new provisions will not be enough to stop misuse of this instrument and ensure compliance with the aims of Directive 1999/70/EC as interpreted in the rulings of the European Court of Justice. Other changes include increasing of minimum annual leave from minimum 18 days to 4 weeks, and minimum weekly leave from 24 to 36 consecutive hours, as well as more speci- fied provisions on protection of underage workers, night-shift workers and pregnant and nursing women. The provisions on the European Works’ Councils have also been incorpo- rated in the law, but will come into force on the day of the Croatian accession to the EU. [ uatucinfo ] page 4

Zagreb, 11 January 2010 - Candidate of the opposi- Social Democrat tion Social Democratic Party, Ivo JosipoviÊ, will be the Ivo JosipoviÊ new President of Republic of Croatia for the next five elected new years. JosipoviÊ won 60.3% of the vote in the second round held on 10 January, beating the independent President of candidate and mayor of Zagreb, Milan BandiÊ. Croatia JosipoviÊ, who based his campaign on the programme called “New Justice” and uncompromising fight against corruption, in his speech after announcement of the results stressed his belief that “citizens of Croatia want to live in a country in which work is rewarded and crim- inal punished, in the country of social security and equal chances”. “I want European Croatia, European not only by membership in the EU but also by the val- ues we stand for - human rights, rights of national minorities, religious freedoms, democracy and free- dom, workers’ rights and social justice, culture, educa- tion and protection of environment.” 52-year old university law professor and classical music composer, who has been equally suc- cessful in his both professional careers, will succeed Stjepan MesiÊ, who has in his ten years as President highly contributed to the democratisation of the country, its opening to the world and rebuilding good relations with its neighbours. Although Croatian President has rather limited power in policy making, as the only state offi- cial chosen directly by the citizens he enjoys high moral authority and is publicly considered a corrective to the Government. JosipoviÊ’s predecessor MesiÊ leaves a legacy of his presi- dential style marked by frequent public statements on various political and social issues, although his interventions have sometimes been controversial. Although JosipoviÊ enjoyed indirect MesiÊ’s support and promised to continue building on his legacy, he is expected to develop a new presidential style, more legalist and less controversial than his predecessor. While some mention his lack of charisma and political experience, many analysts think that a “boring, but intellectual and legalist President” is exactly what Croatia needs. Although the presidential campaign has been rather boring in the eyes of the average voters and focused more on issues as personal wealth, financing of the campaign and personal accusations among the candi- Ivo JosipoviÊ: dates than on political programmes, it was marked by few interesting phenomena, most important of them being the role played by the inde- “Citizens of Croatia pendent candidates. want to live in a Candidate of the ruling HDZ Andrija Hebrang came only 3rd with 12 country in which percent of the votes in the first round held on 27 December, as signif- work is rewarded and icant number of his potential votes went to two independent candi- criminal punished, in dates, also HDZ members who were expelled from the party after the country of social announcing their nomination, former Minister of Education Dragan security and equal Primorac and President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce Nadan chances” VidoπeviÊ. [ ] Mayor of Zagreb Milan BandiÊ, who reached a second round with only 14 percent, was also expelled from his party, social democrats, after announcing his nomina- tion. BandiÊ has for many years been a burden for SDP, partly because of his populist and right wing political style and partly because of his involvement in a number of corruption accusations concerning the city budget and property. However, due to the fact that Zagreb [ uatucinfo ] page 5 was most important SDP stronghold where BandiÊ was regularly wining around 40 percent on local elections, party leadership was reluctant to deal with him. Being re-elected as mayor on local election in May, first time directly by the citizens, BandiÊ now returns to his posi- tion, but will have trouble governing the capital as he lost the support of the City Council majority controlled by SDP. Another event that has overshadowed last days of the presidential campaign was announcement of return to politics of former PM Ivo Sanader, described by many as attempt of coup inside his party HDZ. Sanader, who UATUC welcomes JosipoviÊ’s after his resignation in June remained honorary HDZ programme president, organised a press conference without prior consultation with the party leadership and announced UATUC President Ana his return to politics due to bad results of party candi- KneæeviÊ sent congratulations date on the presidential elections and “the leadership to Ivo JosipoviÊ on behalf of crisis”. However, only few HDZ MPs backed him up the members of affiliated trade and the next day he was expressly deleted from the unions. “Your election brings party membership due to causing “irreversible reputa- hope for return of the val- tion damage to the party by his actions”. Supposedly, ues that have been pur- Sanader planned his return to protect himself against posely suppressed in our corruption investigations which some say could bring society, such as moral and honesty. Your plead him to court in a matter of weeks. He was also said to for Croatia as a country of social security and be calling for HDZ, who remained neutral in second justice, workers’ and social rights, new justice round, to support BandiÊ. in the pension system, free education, fight In the end, it must be noted that the elections brought against corruption and equal chances for all up number of issues regarding election laws, such as are also part of the trade union agenda. In ful- low number of signatures required for nomination and filling such programme you will have uncondi- insufficient or inadequate regulation regarding cam- tional support of the largest Croatian trade paign finance and media promotion so the Government union confederation UATUC”, said KneæeviÊ. has already promised to initiate thorough and system- atic reform of the electoral legislation. [ uatucinfo ] page 6

Director of Zagreb, 9 January 2010 - Three weeks after the resignation of Damir PolanËec in late October 2009, which was provoked by Employers’ public pressure following allegations on corruption, –uro Association PopijaË, until then Chief Director of the Croatian Employers’ appointed new Association, was appointed new Minister of Economy, Labour Minister of and Entrepreneurship on 19 November. The task of finding PolanËec’s successor turned out to be not Economy and an easy one for the new PM Jadranka Kosor, since the portfo- Labour lio is quite ungrateful at the moment, not only due to the eco- nomic crisis but because it also includes the hot issue of pri- vatisation of the industry. As it turned out impos- sible to find qualified and willing person inside the ruling party, Kosor decided to offer the position to the Croatian Employers’ Association. As the employers’ were quite loud in criticizing Government’s economic policy since the start of the crisis, the move was seen as offering them an opportunity as well as responsibility for dealing with the issue themselves. Trade unions did not welcome PopijaË’s appointment, taking the position that portfolio which beside economy also includes labour issues should be given to the person acceptable for both social partners. Subsequently, UATUC renewed its old initiative and called PM Kosor to dissociate the labour portfolio from economy and form a separate Ministry of Labour. PopijaË’s appointment was accompanied by the Finance Minister Ivan ©uker taking over the position of Vice PM in charge of economic issues, which was previously also held by PolanËec. Although it is still early to thoroughly judge PopijaË’s performance as a Minister, it must be noted that so far he has not shown much initiative or any new ideas in dealing with the impact of economic crisis and other important issues in his portfolio. [ uatuc info ] page 7

Croatian Zagreb, 4 January 2010 - Solution of a border dispute, which accession was the reason for Slovenian blocking of the Croatian EU acces- sion negotiations since December 2008, was finally reached in negotiations September 2009 as a result of new negotiation initiative which unblocked started after the new Croatian Prime Minister Mrs Jadranka Kosor took office in July 2009. On 4th November Prime Ministers of both countries finally signed the Arbitration Agreement on establishing Arbitral Tribunal with the task to determine sea and land borders between Croatia and Slovenia. Agreement caused sharp debate in Croatia, especially the oppo- sition parties criticizing the fact that it “allowed possibility of a loss of territory to Slovenia” and calling for a referendum on the agreement. However, opinion that unblocking of negotiations currently presents more important national interest prevailed, and Croatian Parliament finally ratified the Agreement on 20 November. On Slovenian side, Agreement is currently under scrutiny of the Constitutional Court, while it is still possible that Slovenia could call a referendum before its final ratification. Meanwhile, as a result of agreement between Prime Ministers Pahor and Kosor, on 29 September Slovenian Parliament decided to unblock Croatian nego- tiations. On three Intergovernmental Conferences between October and December Croatia opened further eight, and closed eight negotiation chapters, coming to a total number of 28 opened and 17 provisionally closed chapters (out of total 35). Following unblocking of negotiations, Swedish Presidency called a Council of the European Union to form a working group which would start drafting European Croatian Accession Agreement, which the Council confirmed on 7 December. Both European Commission and Croatian Government current- Commission and ly expect that formal negotiations could be concluded in the first half of Croatian Government 2010. Considering the time needed for signing of Accession Agreement expect that formal and its ratification by all Member States, Croatia could become an EU negotiations could be member in 2012, which is currently also a “working date” set by the EC. concluded in the first However, conclusion of negotiations will largely depend on unblocking the half of 2010; Croatia chapter on judiciary and fundamental rights, which is still being blocked by could become an EU the Netherlands, UK, Finland and Belgium due to unsatisfactory coopera- member in 2012 tion with the ICTY and the case of still missing artillery logs from operation [ ] Storm in 1996. Notwithstanding the importance of full cooperation with the ICTY, negotiations in this chapter also depend on much more compli- cated and comprehensive issue of the judiciary reform, which has so far been criticized in every EC Progress Report. Another problem is the chapter on competition policy, which is on hold until Croatia solves the problem of privatisation of shipbuilding industry. Further three chapters are still being blocked by Slovenia due to some issues unrelated to the border dispute but it is expected that this problem will be solved early this year. EC has also prepared main elements of financial package for Croatian membership. Building on assumption that Croatia will become a Member State in 2012, document contains financial pro- jections for 2012 and 2013, i.e. until the expiration of current EU Financial Framework 2007- 2013. According to EC projections, in the first two years of membership, the EU budget allocation for Croatia would be around 3.5 billion euro. Most of these funds would be allocated for stimulat- ing economic growth and employment, as well as to agriculture, rural development and fisheries. Croatian payments to the EU budget for the same time are estimated at 1.2 billion euro. The finan- cial package has been approved by the Council on 7 December. [ uatucinfo ] page 8

Postponed Zagreb, 22 December 2009 - The second round of privatisa- privatisation tion of shipyards is postponed till the beginning of February, said Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. Even though the second of shipyards round was announced for 6 January, the Prime Minister said that she would, in agreement with the European Commission, postpone it till the beginning of February. The tender will be 60 days longer and the Government will make sure that the shipyards “survive” till the end of privatisation process, she promised. However, what will happen if the tender fails and we encounter even larger problems? We will start the preparations for the worst case scenario because one has to be prepared to everything. We will invite both trade unions and man- agements to find a solution. We have to face the truth and not hide our heads in the sand. We will do everything to make the second round of privatisation successful but we also have to be prepared for other possibilities, without hiding our heads in the sand, said the Prime Minister.

UATUC Youth Zagreb, 21 December 2009 - The UATUC Youth Section held its Assembly on 21 December 2009, in Zagreb, electing the Section new team: Josipa BoæiËeviÊ (Metalworkers’ Trade Union) was Assembly elected President, Ivan BlaæeviÊ (TU of Tourism and Services) vice-president and Dijana ©obota (UATUC) as executive secre- tary. The newly elected members of the Executive Committee are Boris LjubojeviÊ (SIT©), Domagoj Ferdebar (UATUC), Natalija »uk (STUH), Marin VuletiÊ (SGH) and Nikπa ©trucelj (SMH). The Assembly also had the educational character, where the delegates had a chance to discuss about the role of youth structures in the unions, position of youth at the labour market, on best practice examples, current activities and future actions and objectives of the Section. Youth section adopted its plan and programme for the forthcoming period, concentrating among others on the need to attract new young members, to strengthen and empower youth sections in trade unions, need for enhanced training and education, building alliances and participation in the activities at the European and international level. [ uatucinfo ] page 9

International Zagreb, 9 December 2009 - On the occa- Human Rights sion of the International Human Rights Day the UATUC Zagreb Office held a press con- Day - 10 December ference. - Croatia signed the European Social Charter but did not ratify the right to safety and health at work, the right to decent wage, to professional training, to social security, the right of physically and mentally disabled persons to vocational training and social rehabilitation, the right of performing paid activity at the territory of other contracting parties and the right of migrant workers and their fami- lies to assistance and protection - said the UATUC county representatives for the City of Zagreb Jagoda Milidrag ©mid. - How to explain human and labour rights to workers in com- panies where they did not get wages for August, September and October - said Ivan KovaËeviÊ, a member of the County Council and Regional Representative of the Trade Union of Construction Industry of Croatia (SGH).

Chinese delegation Zagreb, 14 December 2009 - Six delegates from the Ministry of Finance from the visited Retired Peoples’ Republic of China, led by Sun Persons’ Trade Zhijun, Head of the Social Security of the Union Ministry of Finances of China, visited the Retired Persons’ Trade union of Croatia (SUH). They were welcomed by Matija JuriÊ, UATUC Secretary, who informed them about the organisation and activities of the UATUC. SUH President Stjepan KrajaËiÊ and Ivan Nahtigal, member of SUH Presidency and the President of the Pension System Board, spoke about SUH activities.

Right to old-age Zagreb, 4 December 2009 - The Croatian Parliament amended today the Act on pension to Requirements for Obtaining an Old-Age asbestosis victims Pension by Workers Occupationally Exposed to Asbestos which recognizes the right to old-age pension regardless of the age and years of service to victims of that occupational disease. So far, the special conditions pension was granted to 102 persons, victims of asbestosis, and the Government expects that this number will increase to 250 till 2013 due to the new reg- ulations. The Government also proposes 26 percent increase of those pensions in order to harmonize them with pensions of pension bonus users. The Croatian Parliament also adopted and harmonized with EU legislation the new Act on [ uatucinfo ] page 10

Agriculture which defines agriculture as a strategic economic activity. As proposed by the Government, the amendment regarding the obligation of the minister to submit the so called green report (the annual report on the situation in agriculture in the previous calendar year) to the Parliament once a year was rejected. The Act namely stipulates that the Ministry no longer needs to submit the green report but just to publish it in the Official Gazette.

The Government Zagreb, 30 November 2009 - Economy sector trade must not be a unions affiliated to the UATUC proposed to the Government and Croatian Employers’ Association stepmother to (HUP) an agreement in which they demanded no lay- workers offs in economy sector in 2010; wages in 2010 at the level of 31 December this year; signing the general in economy collective agreement (for those who do not have branch or company level collective agreements) guar- anteeing the minimum wage and coefficients; statisti- cal monitoring of wages, without managerial wages and special contracts; establishment of an intervention guarantee fund for assisting employers suffering from losses due to global cri- sis, reduction of orders and loss of jobs in 2009; merging all means and forms of country’s social policy in one crisis fund for the most endangered; development and systematisation of the consequences of the economic crisis through tripartite dialogue at local and national level; drafting an act which will, after the cancellation of crisis tax, compensate for its dam- ages; protection of domestic production according to the principles of old EU member states. Ivan Tomac, vice-president of the UATUC and president of the Autonomous Trade Union in Power Industry, Chemistry and Non-Metal Industry of Croatia, reminded of the words of the former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader from March 2009, reiterated also by the current Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor in November, that “the Government will defend every job”. The data show different situation. In the first nine months of this year 37,000 jobs have been lost! Workers in the economy sector can no longer endure - concluded Tomac and added that out of 37,793 new unemployed, 31,259 come from economy sector. Crisis is nothing new for Croatian workers - said Josip PaviÊ, president of the largest UATUC affiliated trade union PPDIV - because Croatia is in a crisis for the last twenty years. Even though the Government and employers are trying to convince us that the new Labour Code will not Workers in the reduce workers’ rights, the truth is different and trade unions are against economy sector this reduction. The Government should strengthen weak Croatian econ- can no longer omy - said PaviÊ announcing the possibility of protests and strikes. endure - out of “The crisis is not over, it will be even stronger in 2010 and will cause 37,793 new many bankruptcies”, said Vedran DragiËeviÊ, acting president of the unemployed, Metalworkers’ Trade Union, and also mentioned the second round of 31,259 come from the privatisation of shipyards which is something trade unions were not economy sector informed about. “11,000 jobs are at risk and without workers, this [ ] country will go bankrupt”, said DragiËeviÊ. [ uatucinfo ] page 11

Mirko ©torga, president of the Trade Union of Construction Industry, analyzed the situation in construction sector and said that there are violations of labour and social rights of work- ers even though the SGH has one branch and 47 company level collective agreements. “The Government cannot act as a stepmother to workers in real sector”, said ©torga.

Zagreb, 26 November 2009 - According to the sur- are vey conducted among the citizens of Croatia about worried by the important issues, what worries them the most are the issues of unemployment, job creation and eco- unemployment nomic growth. The survey was conducted in and job creation November this year with a representative sample of 1000 Croatian citizens above 15 years of age. Among the first ten very important issues which should be solved as soon as possible, besides the above mentioned, are the standard of liv- ing and increasing poverty in the country, child abuse, social justice/injustice, fighting cor- ruption and crime, violence especially among the young, reform and development of health care system and protection of human rights. The problem of unemployment and lack of jobs was mentioned by 88 percent of the citizens, mostly those living in Zagreb and , those with university education but also those with lowest levels of education. It is interesting that the problem of violence was especially pointed out by the citizens of Zagreb and Istria, women and young people between 15 and 24 years of age. The other group of very important issues includes: comprehensive and fair solution of pension system, fight against drug and other addic- The crisis is not tions, reform and development of judiciary, development of agriculture, over, it will be reform and development of education system, environment protection, cli- even stronger in mate change, etc. The third group of very important issues for Croatian citizens is the status of persons with different sexual orientation, privatisa- 2010 and will tion of state-owned companies, solving problems with Slovenia, accession cause many to the EU, solving problems with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. bankruptcies When asked about the accession of Croatia to the EU, 31 percent of the [ ] citizens responded that it is very important, for 38 percent this issue is somewhat important and for 31 percent not important at all. [ uatucinfo ] page 12 “Crisis in Croatia is the consequence of our own mistakes”

Zagreb, 24 November 2009 - The UATUC, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, organized a Forum on the new economic policy - from wild predatory capitalism to capitalism with a human face. The speakers in the Forum where Mario ©vigir, UATUC chief economist, independent economic experts Ljubo JurËiÊ and Damir Novotny, and Ludo Vekemans, tax-adviser to the ETUC and Services and Development Director to the SDA. The economic expert Ljubo JurËiÊ pointed out that 80 percent of the crisis in Croatia was caused by our own mistakes and only 20 percent by spill-over effect from the global crisis. “Croatia is now facing the truth - its consumption is larger than production, its import is larger than export, it has a large foreign debt, its competitiveness is constantly decreasing and, due to deindustrialisation, it no longer has domestic products”, warned JurËiÊ and added that this year’s GDP would, due to the crisis, decrease for 5.5 percent.

We have destroyed the industry Countries usually develop from manufacture towards industry but it is the other way around in Croatia - we have destroyed the industry developed during socialism and there is nothing new to replace it. Only 12 percent of investments are allocated to processing industry, which is the lowest percentage in Europe, pointed out JurËiÊ. Instruments of economic policy in other countries are aims in Croatia, so the stable exchange rate became an end in itself even though it increases the price of domestic products and destroys their competitiveness, and zero deficit of the state budget is still insisted upon, in times when other countries use the deficit to stop the crisis (for example the deficit in the USA amounts to 13.3 percent this year). All this led us to the position where we have We have neither products nor jobs - neither products nor jobs - Croatia participates Croatia participates with only 0.2 with only 0.2 percent in Europe’s production, percent in Europe’s production, and and that is lower than the statistical error, con- [ that is lower than the statistical error cluded JurËiÊ. ]

Economic policy must find out what Croatia can produce Together with another economic expert participating in the forum Damir Novotny, he is com- mitted to developing a new economic policy which would, first of all, find out what Croatia can produce and then provide conditions for production. Novotny warned that Croatia had to start modernizing very soon, otherwise it would live in stagnation for the following 10 to 15 years. The Government needs to do this because the recovery from the crisis will not “spill over” from the European Union, said Novotny and pointed out that the Government needed to “stop with the empty stories” that the most parts of the budget are predefined so nothing can be done. We have to attract foreign investments in order to create new, high- quality jobs even if we have to beg foreign investors to come to Croatia, said Novotny. [ uatucinfo ] page 13

Taxes Zagreb, 25 November 2009 - As a part of his two- day visit to UATUC, Ludo Vekemans participated in - EU perspective the work of the UATUC Wage Policy Coordination meeting, with the key agenda topic taxes - EU per- spectives. Colleague Vekemans presented the positions and the policies of the ETUC in the field of the economic and tax policy. This meeting is part of a series of events the UATUC is organizing with a view of launching a campaign in mobilizing general public with regard to the understanding of trade union proposals related to shifts in tax policy and economic pol- icy in general. 2009 downward economic trends, negative trends in private consumption, negative sentiment in consumption and investment, increasing unemployment are speaking for itself. Trade unions fear that the Government announcement of drastic public spending cuts in the next fiscal year and withdrawal from all the public investments will make its macro- economic outlook just much worse. Result could be not just a further deterioration of GDP, wages, rise of unemployment but also a drastic widening of welfare and income inequalities among Croatian citizens. At the same time pushing for the overall lowering of existing taxes would create huge pressure on budget expenditures to be cut and finally social right to be either partially abolished or drastically lowered. Therefore, trade union confederations are proposing that taxation system should be partially remodeled so that the accumulated wealth and capital income should be taxed (which is not the case now) and that those taxes should reinforce budget revenues. At the same time the UATUC is opposing general drastic tax cuts for they resemble taxation dumping with regard to the majority of EU member states.

Cooperation Zagreb, 19 November 2009 - Retired Persons’ between Italian Trade Union of Croatia (SUH) and Retired Persons’ Trade Union of Italy (SPI-CGIL) signed yesterday in and Croatian Novigrad in Istria an agreement on the future coop- retired persons eration the basis of which is the joint aim of high- quality and decent life for retired persons in the con- text of global economic crisis. Two delegations estimated that the economic crisis can lead to the worsening of rights of retired and elderly persons and destroy long trade union efforts and fight for decent old age. It was therefore decided that the both parties would in their countries, but also at the European level especially through FERPA and the ETUC, become involved in preventing legal and other measures, such as crisis tax in Croatia, which can worsen the position of retired persons. It is precisely the international character of the crisis that imposes the need for coordinated international response and struggle, concluded Italian and Croatian retired per- sons. Retired persons’ trade unions of Croatia and Italy decided to strengthen international cross- border cooperation in the way that they will organize annual thematic meetings in which they will discuss current topics and possible solutions for promoting retired persons’ standard of living. Next year’s topic will be poverty and elderly persons and in 2011 volunteerism and active participation of the elderly in society. Both trade unions will also continue cooperat- ing with other organisations sharing their interests. [ uatucinfo ] page 14

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INDICATORS IN FIGURES

G D P g r o w t h : - 6 , 3 % F o r e i g n d e b t : 4 0 . 8 b i l l i o n E U R P e r s o n a l c o n s u m p t i o n : - 9 . 4 % I n v e s t m e n t s : - 1 2 . 7 % A v e r a g e n e t w a g e c o v e r s o n l y 8 2 . 6 5 % o f t h e „ t r a d e u n i o n b a s k e t “

Unemployment “It is unrealistic to expect that the public sector will At the end of December 2009, 291.545 unemployed persons were registered at the strengthen for the benefit Croatian Employment Service. Majority of newly registered are from construction of all without the change of industry (17.6%), commerce 17.5 %), pro- cessing industry (17.1%) and accommoda- mentality in the very state. Until the mentality tion and catering 13.7 %). It is expected that has changed, the state will continue to be per- the unemployment will reach its peak in the first quarter of 2010, when the number of ceived as the cash cow”, says Æeljko Rohatinski, unemployed will be larger than 300.000. It is expected that the unemployment rate will Governor of the Croatian Central Bank. “In the be around 16.6%. The current data of the period ahead of us, Croatia needs new economic Croatian Bureau of Statistics show the unem- ployment rate of 16.1%, which is the highest policy, in terms of better coordination of fiscal unemployment rate as of April 2007. and monetary policy.”

UNION OF AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF CROATIA

Edited by: UATUC International Department UATUC Int.Dept.: Dijana ©obota (Head), Darko ©eperiÊ UATUC President: Ana KneæeviÊ Phone: +385-1-4655 026, Fax: +385-1-4655 011 UATUC e-mail address: [email protected]; [email protected] www.sssh.hr Layout: Nenad PejuπkoviÊPhoto: Æeljko Slunjski