ZAGREB, 2 June, 2021 - The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) and the SSSH trade union federation have asked Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for an urgent meeting on the regulation of regular public transport, stressing that if the meeting is not held, they "will be forced to take certain joint activities".
The answer and the date of the urgent meeting are expected by Friday, 4 June, at the latest, the associations said in a letter to the prime minister.
Employers and unionists say they have been "more than active" in proposing solutions and "more than patient" over the last three years, waiting for the final implementation of European and national regulations.
The HUP and the SSSH warn that the already ready legal solutions that were a prerequisite for signing contracts for regular public passenger transport on county and inter-county lines up to 100 kilometres are not implemented due to the inactivity of state administration bodies.
They also said that the decision had not yet been made on the distribution of funds from the state budget to counties, even though the funds, according to the SSSH and the HUP, had already been secured, and that public service contracts between counties and private transport companies involved in regular public passenger transport had not been signed yet.
"Private bus carriers from the HUP transport association account for 80% of the public transport on county and inter-county lines up to 100 kilometres and employ over 7,000 workers who are directly affected by such irresponsible behaviour of the relevant ministries," the HUP said.
Without a public service contract, the process of collective bargaining to improve working conditions in the transport sector is at a standstill and existing jobs are in jeopardy, they noted.
The operation of most public bus lines is at risk, especially in rural areas, and workers and private public transport providers haven't been able to plan their business and their companies' prospects for three years now, the HUP and the SSSH warned.
The HUP and the SSSH think that the government should make a decision on the distribution of funds from the state budget to counties (signatories of contracts with transport companies) at its next session.
They added that it was also necessary to stop discrimination against private bus carriers and their workers in relation to carriers owned by the public sector since private companies still didn't have public service contracts, while public companies did, for the same service.
They also think that it is necessary to continue with the job-retention subsidies for all companies that continue to register a decline in business and meet the prescribed criteria.
That is especially important, they said, for passenger transport on lines in rural areas, where the number of passengers is declining sharply, also because of the end of the school year and the holidays, and cannot be sustained without state support.
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