ZAGREB, 9 March, 2021 - Labour Minister Josip Aladrović said on Tuesday that better protection of platform workers would be addressed as part of Labour Act amendments and that an attempt would be made to regulate that type of work.Speaking to the press, he said the first round of consultations on the amendments was expected to be completed by the end of this month.

Aladrović said platform work was a new type of work "appearing everywhere in the world, including in Croatia."

It concerns first and foremost delivery workers and drivers working via digital global platforms. The minister said it was estimated that 5% of Europeans were platform workers.

"That's certainly a segment of work that will have to be additionally protected so that it's not part of precarious work and so that the safety of such jobs is of a higher level."

Aladrović said Croatia could be one of the first countries in Europe to regulate that type of work by law.

Since this type of work is not adequately regulated, it is difficult to speculate how many people in Croatia are platform workers, he said, adding that it was yet to be seen how platform work would be regulated.

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ZAGREB, Dec 7, 2020 - Labour  Minister Josip Aladrovic said on Monday that closing shopping malls was not an option at the moment.

"At the moment, closing shopping malls is certainly not an option and I personally believe that it will not be an option. We can consider some possible additional anti-epidemic requirements for shopping malls in order to reduce the potential spread of the epidemic but closing shopping malls as such is not on the cards at the moment," Aladrovic said responding to reporters ahead of a government meeting when asked if there were any projections of the burden to the budget, if, for example, malls were closed.

With regard to estimated consumption, Aladrovic said that in the first few days of December consumption was almost identical to last year's. We do not expect any significant deviation in that most important segment in this pre-Christmas and Christmas period, he said.

The head of the national coronavirus response team, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, said on Monday that new rules for retail shops were expected in the coming days.

He said that talks were under way with retailers on imposing additional restrictions on the number of customers allowed in a shop at any given time. He added that he did not expect this number to be limited to one person per 10 square metres.

ZAGREB, December 4, 2020 - Labour and Pension System Minister Josip Aladrovic said on Friday that HRK 7.6 billion from the state budget had been disbursed so far for job retention grants and shortened working hours, and the amount could climb to HRK 8 billion until the end of this year.

Aladrovic told reporters that the government had already outlined three measures to bail out the economy.

They are job retention grants of HRK 2,000 to 4,000 as a monthly allowance for workers which means that if an employer is shut down for more than 14 days they receive HRK 4,000 for each employee. In this case, employers are also exempt from paying contributions, which amount to about HRK 470 million. The Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) updated that measure today, he added.

The second measure relates to covering a portion of all fixed costs during lockdown and that measure could amount to about HRK 250 million. A fall in turnover of more than 60% in regard to the comparable period last year (Dec 2020 to Dec 2019) makes businesses eligible for that measure. The Tax Administration will soon hammer out the criteria for this measure.

The third measure is a new package of COVID loans through the Hamag-Bicro agency amounting to HRK 1.3 billion.

This encompasses all branches that the government considers will be most exposed due to the anti-Covid epidemiological restrictions that are in force until December 21, said Aladrovic.

"We will monitor the epidemiological measures, evaluate their effect and accordingly upgrade economic measures, if necessary, in an effort to keep jobs and business activities," he added.

He underlined that negotiations with employer associations provided a series of proposals and one of them was to include micro enterprises that depend on all those who have been shut down.

"We have included them in the measures, however they have to prove a fall in revenue and that they have business connections with those sectors that are in lockdown," Aladrovic explained and added that they will be eligible for the job retention measure.

Compensation of fixed costs only applies to those who are in lockdown until December 21, he underlined.

According to Aladrovic there are three various sources to finance the jobkeeping measures, the state budget, the EU Sure programme which has provided a loan for Croatia of just over one billion euro and EU funds, or one part of the resilience programme which will provide €530 million.

He added that in the earlier phase, between March and May, Croatia absorbed HRK 1.3 billion in funds from the European Social Fund and that it plans to absorb another portion of that fund for the jobkeeping measures.

The total effect on the budget regardless of all these sources of funding at the moment is HRK 7.6 billion, which is how much has been spent on support and by the end of the year that amount could be HRK 8 billion. About 60% of that will come from the state budget and 40% from EU funds, he explained.

(€1 = HRK 7.545450

ZAGREB, July 8, 2020 - Labour and Pension System Minister Josip Aladrovic confirmed on Wednesday that his ministry and the Ministry of Demography, Family Affairs, Youth, and Social Policy could be joined into a single ministry.

"... We have already announced that the number of ministries will be reduced and we will definitely do it. What is important about such plans is to keep functionality at the same level or increase it," Aladrovic said ahead of a meeting of the inner cabinet.

He noted that in Europe, a single ministry was frequently in charge of labour, the pension system, demography, and social affairs.

"... We want to show that our public administration and government can be equally functional or more functional with a small number of ministers," he said.

Asked if the joining of ministries meant reassignment of staff or layoffs, Aladrovic repeated that the main goal was to increase efficiency and reduce the number of executive posts.

"I would not rule out reductions either," he said.

Aladrovic, too, confirmed that there was a possibility representatives of ethnic minorities would have a ministerial post, noting that an agreement on which ministry they would get had not been reached yet.

State Assets Minister Mario Banozic, too, said today that he had nothing against the joining of his ministry and some other ministry.