As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, a new directive on an adequate minimum wage across the European Union could come out of Brussels’ ”kitchen” by June and force the Croatian minumum wage upwards.
Although its pillar is the introduction of the institute of the minimum wage, which, unlike here in Croatia, is not yet available to all EU member states, the domestic labour market could be shaken by the additional demand it will bring, which is that the member state must actively strive to cover at least 70 to 80 percent of its workers with collective agreements.
The directive seeks to strengthen the European Union’s idea of social security and it has strong political support, as could be heard recently coming from the Belgian capital.
The topic is on the table of the convocation of the European Parliament in the continuation of this mandate and is being additionally pushed by the current President of France. On the eve of the April elections, President Emmanuel Macron’s trump card is an ideal opportunity to strengthen France’s leadership position in the European Union after the departure of the very well known and long-standing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Although here in Croatia there are regular spears about the amount of the minimum wage that the Government adopts by decree (it isn’t enough for workers and is always a question of competitiveness for employers), Croatia is among the 21 member states that already know and are quite well acquainted with this institute.
The exceptions are Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden. By raising the Croatian minimum wage to 3,750 kuna in 2022, Croatia has approached the goal set by the new EU directive, which is that the minimum wage must be 60 percent of the gross median and 50 percent of the average gross wage.
Therefore, the directive does not exclude the instrument of minimum wages, but provides a clearer calculation of how to calculate it and provides for a mechanism for testing the adequacy of its national level.
“We hoped that the directive would be passed during the Portuguese presidency, but some countries made a number of remarks, and Croatia doubted whether the goal of at least 70 percent of workers covered by collective agreements would be too difficult to achieve,” said Kresimir Sever, the president of the Independent Croatian Trade Unions.
It’s worth noting that the proposal of the European Commission is that it should be 70 percent of the workers covered by collective agreements, while the MEPs are proposing 80 percent in their amendments. “The aim is to ensure that every worker in the EU is paid for their work so that they can live with dignity, and nothing less than that. Croatia is close to the aforementioned minimum wage target, but hasn’t yet reached it in gross terms. The problem in Croatia is low wages, so naturally the Croatian minimum wage is also low,” the trade unionist added.
The trade unions themselves have a hard time estimating how many workers are actually covered by collective agreements in this country. Sever estimates that about 50 percent of employees in Croatia have a collective agreement in addition to an employment contract, but with the caveat that there is no data on “home” contracts.
In this context, it is important to note that the European Union as a whole is moving towards strengthening the role of trade unions, not only as workers’ representatives, but also as bodies that collectively negotiate with employers.
It should be noted that the directive isn’t binding, but it does work to further encourage member states to achieve a high percentage of coverage of their workers by collective agreements. The setting of benchmarks and modalities is still being negotiated, as are the timeframes within which each member state should achieve these goals.
Although in practice collective agreements are often perceived as clashes between employers and workers, their prevalence carries wide social consequences.
“The wide application of collective agreements is a way of coordinating wage policies that can ensure greater transparency and certainty of workers’ incomes at the national or sectoral level, but also the stability of the workforce and the control of labour costs for employers, without harsh, generally universal legal interventions,” said a senior research associate at the Institute for Social Research, Teo Matkovic.
He also mentioned that the legal instrument of the Croatian mininum wage has existed now for just over a decade, and it has been growing significantly for several years since. It is the opposite of collective agreements, the use of which has decreased significantly in the last 20 years or so.
“In this country, the coverage of collective agreements is modest, and the content is thin, especially outside of the public sector, so this coordination mechanism will need to be worked on if the adequacy of income in Croatia is to be relied on,” explained Matkovic. He believes that a significantly larger area for collective bargaining, provided by the directive, “would strengthen the position of work across the EU, and in Croatia is likely to reduce emigration and encourage investment in skills and productivity.”
For employers, the cost of labour is a calculation of competitiveness, especially emphasised in the circumstances of accelerating inflation and rising costs of raw materials. “Any increase in the Croatian minimum wage has significant consequences for employers, especially in the situation we’re now witnessing when there’s inflation, the rising cost of living and rising energy prices across the market.
If we take into account the consequences of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, it’s clear that employers can hardly bear the new increase in costs, without these costs being accompanied by a reduction in the workload,” they said from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), also pointed out that they’re aware of the need to increase the living standards of citizens, “but it is necessary to apply a rational approach that will not lead to new layoffs.”
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