April 13, 2023 - It seems that what used to be the Croatian dream is now becoming less and less desirable. Interest for work in the Croatian public sector is slowly but surely waning. In a survey of 1,800 respondents, 40 percent of civil servants said they were satisfied with their workplace, which is below the national average.

As Poslovni writes, employment in the public sector has become unattractive due to salaries that are below the national average, few opportunities for progression and the inability to influence decisions that must be implemented, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Dragan Bagić pointed out on Wednesday at the round table "How to attract workers to the public sector".

In a survey of 1,800 respondents, 40 percent of civil servants declared that they were satisfied with their workplace, which is below the national average, Bagić stated. About 30 percent of them are thinking about changing employers, which is above the average (25 percent), so Croatia is threatened with a further outflow of employees from the civil service.

Only 11 percent of employees are satisfied with their incomes, which is also significantly below the national average, said Bagić, warning that wages in the civil service have fallen in real terms due to inflation and lag significantly more than in the real sector.

If such a trend continues, the public sector will not be sustainable, Bagić believes, and notes that civil servants are often the first to be attacked by citizens because of decisions they have no influence over, and are obliged to implement.

Sanda Pipunić, head of the Civil Service Administration of the Ministry of Justice, said that civil servants are dissatisfied with their salaries, working conditions, and other aspects of their work. Younger generations, the so-called millennials tend to change employers more often and look for more flexible working conditions in order to be able to balance business and family obligations.

There are not enough competent officials in key positions, and civil servants at lower levels do not sufficiently participate in decision-making, warned Pipunić.

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ZAGREB, 23 Jan 2022 - In 2022, notaries are expected to ease the workload of land registries through the further digitization of some services such as the registration into land registries and online issuance of documents, the head of the Croatian Chamber of Notaries, Zvijezdana Rauš-Klier said in an interview.

The continuation of the digitization of notarization services will not be conducted on commercial platforms but in a sort of "a safe virtual room", that is a separate IT system, Rauš-Klier said in the interview published on Sunday.

Starting a company online to be possible as of this summer

As of this summer, the notarization system ought to offer full online service for the digital registration of the newly-founded companies.

Upgrading digitization of notary public services will make it possible for clients not to go to notaries' offices but to be provided with digital services necessary to start a company or to register changes in the existing ones, Rauš-Klier explains.

Croatia to apply German model of digitization of services

Local notaries, supported by the Croatian Ministry of justice and public administration, are due to implement the German model of digital notarisation services. An agreement signed by the Croatian chamber and the German Federal Chamber of Notaries in 2019 will facilitate these efforts, she told Hina.

She said that this model of digitization will enable notaries to establish the identity of clients, that is parties, and their serious intention, as well as to provide them with advice for the best ways to implement their plans. 

The model includes the combination of video conferences, electronic identification, and remote identity proofing.

Rauš-Klier underscored the importance of electronic power of attorney for the business sector. and cross-border interoperability.

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ZAGREB, 13 April, 2021 - The Bridge party on Tuesday criticised the government's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, noting that investing in the public sector will not finance economic recovery but rather cause new scandals and clientelism.

"Each kuna invested in the private sector will yield a return of four kuna and each kuna invested in the public sector means a maximum return of one kuna, if the money is used efficiently, which in Croatia is not the case," Bridge MP Zvonimir Troskot said at a news conference.

He said that he condemned the stigmatisation of people who think critically about the National Recovery and Resilience Plan as "people whose patriotism is dubious."

Ruling HDZ MP Grozdana Perić last week said that those who criticise the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "do not love Croatia."

"Grozdana Perić and the prime minister's special advisor on economy, Zvonimir Savić, are not the only economic strategists. There are the Institute of Economics, the Croatian Employers' Association, the Entrepreneurs' Association as well as independent economists who are saying that the National Plan is not good," said Troskot.

"If entrepreneurs are again disregarded, we won't have money for wages, pensions or COVID allowances," he said.

Bridge against banning "For homeland ready" salute

Bridge MP Nikola Grmoja commented on initiatives to ban the Ustasha salute "For the homeland ready."

"As regards the insignia of the Croatian Defence Force (HOS), that is a legal unit of the Croatian Army. We are not for bans but rather for education and clear distancing from all totalitarian regimes, Fascism, Nazism and Communism alike," said Grmoja, noting that one should not link HOS with the 1941-45 Independent State of Croatia and the Ustasha.

"Banning symbols turns them into a fetish, and we don't want that," he said.

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