ZAGREB, 3 Sept 2021 - The process of amending the Labour Act to regulate teleworking will be initiated before the end of this year, and the amended legislation should be passed no later than August 2022, a conference on remote work was told in Split on Friday.

The conference was held within the Devote programme, which is being implemented by the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) in cooperation with the Oil Industry Union (SING) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO).

"It is our duty to adjust our legislation, including the Labour Act, to the European Union's 2019 directives, and deadlines expire in August 2022," said Josipa Klišanin of the Croatian Labour Ministry.

The EU directives will have the greatest impact on contracts on teleworking enabling employees to choose their place of work in agreement with their employer, according to Klišanin.

It is a worker's workload and performance that matters and not the place where they perform their duties, she underscored.

The future amendments will introduce the protection of teleworkers, and labour inspectors will be able to visit them only if they announce their visit and have the substantive reason  for such a visit, she said.

The HUP director-general, Damir Zorić, said that the amendments should produce better regulation of remote work.

HUP's chief economist Iva Tomić said that on average, 3% of employed Croatians were teleworkers, however, during the COVID-19 pandemic this percentage had risen by 30%.

 Surveys show that an estimated 100 million people will soon be teleworking worldwide.

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