Croatia’s long working week makes the top of the EU’s list.
Croatia and work. Two very bizarre words to put together for a variety of rather unusual reasons. Nobody quite works as hard as a Croat, despite the amount of time spent sitting in cafes on the coast. Croats have a very well ingrained work ethic and are far from work shy, but unfortunately get very few chances to employ that excellent work ethic here in Croatia, where finding steady and safe employment is all the more rocky of a task.
Owing to numerous economic issues and a negative demographic trend, many desperate people who want to remain in the country and not hop on the next bus or plane to Germany, Ireland or the UK, end up seeking or otherwise getting work in less than favourable conditions, often stripping them of many of the working rights they’re entitled to, lining the pockets of unsavoury characters.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of February, 2018, the highest share of people with an insecure working status are in Croatia, France, Spain and Poland, as well as in the EU candidate countries of Montenegro and Turkey.
According to a Eurostat study on working time, the average in the Europen Union back in 2016 was 37.1 hours a week. Among the EU member states, the Greeks have the longest working week (42.3 hours a week), and the Dutch enjoy the shortest (30.3 hours per week).
As Glas Slavonije writes, Croatia has a very long working week, averaging over 39 hours per week. As far as more ”precarious work” is concerned, which is sadly the most desirable form, giving the employee the lowest labour rights legally possible – Croatia is the absolute champion in the European Union, an extremely deflating fact.
