Croatia’s emigration and demographic crisis is resulting in a lack of gravediggers…
It might sound extremely morbid, and despite the obvious reality, it’s certainly a job most of us prefer to imagine doesn’t actually exist, but as more and more people leave Croatia in their quest for opportunities abroad, the country is facing a shortage of even those who are quietly responsible for the very unpleasant final preparations for eternal rest.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 27th of September, 2018, this particular job is much more specific than it might strike you, and in addition, it’s a difficult job that not everyone is able to do do because of the psychological implications of the work involved in such a position.
How desperate the situation is gradually becoming when it comes to finding an adequate workforce in any sector in the Republic of Croatia is perhaps best illustrated by an example from the north of the country, where it has become impossible to find gravediggers.
“It’s a specific and difficult type of job that not everyone can do because they’re not mentally prepared for such work. The wages are not high, from 4,000 to 4,800 kuna,” Lenko Ugrinić, director of the Nasadi company told Vecernji list.
The director of the Čakovec-based Čakom, Snježana Tkalčec Avirović, revealed that they have been faced with an increasing number of workers departing and leaving to go abroad over the last year, and their now empty positions are difficult to fill.
”Such a trend is present for all the lower ranked jobs in the communal activities we carry out, and it’s the most notable when it comes to the workplaces of waste treatment workers, utility workers, funeral workers, utility vehicle drivers, and drivers for the transportation of the deceased. That’s why we’re thinking about raising the prices of our funeral services in order to increase the salaries of these workers,” stated Avirović.
