Could foreign workers end the labour shortage in Croatia?
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce has proposed a solution for the burning labour force shortage. It wants to liberalise the labour market by bringing in foreign workers and allowing minors and retirees to work, but experts doubt such measures would be successful, reports DW, according to Večernji List on 28 July 2017.
In the middle of the tourist season, employers are facing a shortage of workers in the Croatian labour market. There are not enough qualified workers in other industries as well, although there are still about 170,000 registered unemployed persons. The tourism industry lacks about three thousand workers, while the construction sector would need about two thousand workers more.
Sociologist Teo Matković doubts that the proposed measures could significantly raise the low activity of minors, and especially of the elderly, warning that it could “bring new risks” at the same time. Matković points out that student workers are highly beneficial for employers due to lower taxes and contributions, but noted that, for people under the age of 15, the work is forbidden by international conventions, while with the people under the age of 18, the emphasis should be placed on their health and education.
Matković also points out that retirees who receive regular pensions, unlike those who retired early or receive a disability pension, have been able to work half-time since 2014. This is why he argues that enabling early retirees to work could result in a mass exodus of employed people to early retirement. “It would be better to protect the right to work for people over the age of 65, but with the retention of their retirement rights,” says Matković.
Economist Ljubo Jurčić believes that the fundamental problem is “the lack of active, consistent and tailor-made economic and social policy that would build a system for employing Croatian citizens.”
Lots of attention has been focused on a recent proposal made by Davor Štern, former Minister of Economy and Honorary Consul of the Philippines to Croatia, who proposed that workers from the Philippines should come to Croatia. Jurčić argues that employing foreigners, while citizens of Croatia are leaving the country at the same time, would not solve the problem, even though he agrees that in the short term it is necessary to allow the import of labour in order for certain companies to survive.
“The solution to the Croatian problem is not the import of labour, because that would only blur our fundamental problem, given that the Croatian government does not have a policy that would answer the question of what Croatian citizens will do,” says the respected economist, reiterating that “industrial policy and fostering economic growth are the primary concern of the state everywhere in the world.”
“Some industries will have to close down, and some industries, such as tourism which is profitable, will not be run by Croatian citizens, but by major global companies,” says Juričić, who considers this problem to be “the paramount political issue.”
Translated from Večernji List.
