“I must specifically decline the possibility of introducing a so-called union tax in the form that the media tried to depict it,” Aladrović told reporters after a meeting of the inner cabinet.
As for speculation that the government could accept the union proposal for the introduction of such a tax, that is, obligatory payment of a union membership fee even for workers who are not union members, Aladrović said that “the media had misinterpreted the social dialogue.”
In the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and talks with unions on the new labour law, the government has decided to strengthen and encourage social dialogue and collective bargaining but that does not mean that all proposals are automatically accepted, he said.
“Certain proposals and solutions have been interpreted as if they are going to go into force immediately, but that is only one negotiating possibility, one of the proposal by workers and nothing more,” said the minister.
He added that consultations with unions and employers on the new labour legislation were finished, that agreement had been reached on many issues and that soon a task force would be set up to draw up a new law.
No comment on court ruling in case of gay couple’s motion for adoption
Aladrović would not comment on the Zagreb Administrative Court ruling in the case of life partners Mladen Kožić and Ivo Šegota, stressing that it was a non-final ruling.
The Rainbow Families association of LGBTIQ couples and individuals who have or want to have children said earlier in the day that the court had decided that Kožić and Šegota had been discriminated against when in 2016 they were prevented from undergoing the process of evaluation for adoption.
In 2020 the two men were granted the right to provide foster care.
The association’s president, Daniel Martinović, said the court ruled that the two men must not be discriminated against because they are life partners.
The ruling, Martinović said, confirms that life partners in Croatia can adopt.
He noted that the ruling was still not final and expressed a wish for the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy not to appeal against it, thus respecting a Constitutional Court ruling of 2020 in which the court concluded that everyone should be enabled to participate in the provision of foster care under equal terms.
“We saw the ruling this week, we are still analysing its effects and legal possibilities,” said Aladrović.
He noted that the HDZ party had expressed its political position on the matter through the Family Act and the Foster Care Act.
“We will act in line with decisions of Croatian courts, but this is only a non-final ruling,” said the minister.
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