Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

Follow-up to the discussion of the Committee on the Application of Standards (International Labour Conference, 103rd Session, May–June 2014)

The Committee takes due note of the discussion which took place within the Conference Committee in June 2014.

The Committee notes the observations received on 1 September 2014 from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and requests the Government to provide its comments on the application in practice of the provisions of the Convention. The Committee also notes the Government’s comments on the 2013 observations made by the Association of Croatian Trade Unions (MATICA).

Article 1 of the Convention. Protection of workers against acts of anti-union discrimination. In its previous comments, the Committee, referring to allegations of excessive court delays in dealing with cases of anti-union discrimination, had requested the Government to provide information on the progress made with respect to the measures aimed at improving the efficiency of the legal protection. The Committee notes from the information provided by the Government to the Conference Committee that: (i) a comprehensive process of judicial reform has been taking place during the past few years, in the framework of which many laws have been amended, the courts have been restructured and their territorial distribution modified, and information technology has been advancing, which resulted in a considerable drop of the number of unresolved cases; and (ii) the Labour Inspectorate Act was adopted and entered into force on 20 February 2014 and the Inspectorate Unit was established as a separate unit within the Ministry of Labour and Pension System since 1 January 2014. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide details on measures envisaged or taken with a view to accelerating judicial proceedings in cases of anti-union discrimination, and to provide practical information including statistics concerning the impact of such measures on the length of the proceedings.

Articles 4 and 6. Promotion of collective bargaining in the public service. In its previous comments, the Committee, referring to previous allegations made by the Trade Union of State and Local Government Employees of Croatia (SDLSN) that the Local and Regional Self-Government Wage Act of 19 February 2010 restricts the right of employees of financially weaker local and regional self-government units to bargain collectively over the wage formation basis, had noted the Government’s indication that salaries of civil servants in local and regional self-government units are adjusted to salaries of civil servants at state level and had requested the Government to provide information on the practical application of such adjustment. The Committee notes from the information provided by the Government to the Conference Committee that: (i) the wage formation basis for the calculation of pay of employees of all local and regional self-government units, including financially weaker ones, is determined by collective bargaining (section 9 of the Act); (ii) the wage formation basis in units where aids exceed 10 per cent of the unit income must not exceed the wage formation basis of civil servants (section 16); and (iii) this restriction ensures that units which do not have sufficient income for their expenses and rely on aid from the state budget for the salaries of their employees, cannot increase salaries disproportionally to their income. The Committee recalls that special modalities for collective bargaining in the public service, in particular as regards wage clauses and other clauses with budgetary implications, are compatible with the Convention. Noting that the SDLSN criticizes the current system, the Committee invites the Government to initiate a dialogue with the most representative workers’ organizations in the local and regional self-government units of the public service with a view to exploring possible improvements to the collective bargaining system on the wage formation basis.

Furthermore, the Committee had noted the allegations that the Act on the Realization of the Government’s Budget of 1993 allowed the Government to modify the substance of collective agreements in the public sector for financial reasons. Recalling that, in general, a legal provision which allows one party to modify unilaterally the content of signed collective agreements is contrary to the principles of collective bargaining, the Committee had requested the Government to provide a copy of the relevant legislative provisions and information on their application in practice. The Committee notes from the information provided by the Government to the Conference Committee that this law is no longer in force, that it is standard procedure to adopt annually an act on the realization of the state budget, and that the Act on the Realization of the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia for 2014 was recently adopted but not yet translated into one of the ILO working languages. The Committee requests the Government to provide a copy of the aforementioned Act and underlines the importance of ensuring that any future Act on the Realization of the State Budget does not enable the Government to modify the substance of collective agreements in force in the public service for financial reasons.

With reference to previous allegations of MATICA denouncing the content of the Act on the Criteria for Participation in Tripartite Bodies and Representativeness for Collective Bargaining of 13 July 2012 (2012 Representativeness Act), the Committee had expressed the wish to receive any comments the most representative employers’ and workers’ organizations may wish to make in respect of this matter, so as to enable it to assess the established representativeness criteria. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that: (i) the contested 2012 Representativeness Act is no longer in force; (ii) a new Act on Trade Unions’ and Employers’ Associations’ Representativeness (2014 Representativeness Act) was adopted and entered into force on 7 August 2014 as part of a package which included adoption of a new Labour Act; and (iii) the 2014 Representativeness Act was elaborated in close cooperation and after numerous consultations with all representative social partners including MATICA. The Committee notes that the Government draws attention to certain developments in the new legislation that seek to address issues previously raised by MATICA (for example, longer period of extended application of collective agreement after expiry may be specified by the collective agreement in question; professional unions must fulfil the same general representativeness criteria as all other unions). With a view to examining the conformity of the 2014 Representativeness Act with the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to provide copies of it and the new Labour Act and further information on the relevant provisions and their application in practice, and expresses the wish that the most representative employers’ and workers’ organizations provide any views or comments in respect of the new legislation, so as to enable it to assess the newly established representativeness criteria, and to determine whether the established criteria are shared by the most representative social partners.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2015.]