European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Articles 60, 60a, 61 (1), 65 (3), 66 (1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), 67 (1, 3, 4, 5)
Overtime, organization and rescheduling of working time
Article 60 establishes that a normal working week consists of 40 hours, which may be evenly or unevenly distributed. In the latter case, working time can be either longer or shorter than 8 hours per day. The arrangements are defined by individual employment contracts, agreements between the works council and the employer, collective bargaining and laws.
The working hours schedule is defined by additional Article 60.a (1) The working time schedule is the schedule of the duration of the worker's work, which determines the days and hours when work begins and ends on those days. (2) The working time schedule may be equal or unequal, depending on whether the duration of work is equally or unequally distributed over days, weeks or months. (3) The working time schedule is determined by a regulation, a collective agreement, an agreement concluded between the works council and the employer, a work regulation or a work contract. (4) If the working time schedule is not determined in the manner referred to in paragraph 3 of this article, the employer decides on the working time schedule by a written decision. (5) The employer must, at least one week in advance, inform the worker about his schedule or a change in his working time schedule, which must contain information in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article. (6) As an exception to paragraph 5 of this article, when, in the event of an urgent need for an employee to work, it is necessary to change the working time schedule, the employer is obliged to inform the employee about such a working time schedule or about its change within a reasonable time, before the start of the work. . (7) Urgent need, in the sense of this Act, means those circumstances which the employer could not foresee or avoid, and which make a change in the worker's working time schedule necessary. (8) During the use of the right to vacations and leave prescribed by the provisions of this Act, the employee and the employer must consider the balance between private and business life and the principle of unavailability in professional communication, unless it is an urgent need, i.e. when, due to the nature of the work, communication with it cannot not interfere with the worker or when the collective agreement or employment contract has agreed otherwise.
Articles 65 and 66 limits overtime work on a weekly and annual basis. If a worker works overtime, the total duration of the worker's work must not exceed 50 hours per week. As the full-time weekly working time in Croatia is 40 hours (daily breaks are included), a worker with a contracted full-time work can work a maximum of 10 hours overtime in a week, while a worker with a contracted part-time work of 20 hours per week is able to work also 50 hours a week, but 20 hours will be his or her regular working hours and 30 hours will be overtime. Exceptions to the maximum 50-hour working week are prescribed only in the case of unequal distribution and redistribution of working hours, and only with the fulfilment of certain conditions prescribed in Art. 66, paragraphs 7 to 10 and 67, paragraph 5. At the annual level, the overtime work of an individual worker may not last longer than 180 hours, unless agreed in a collective agreement, in which case it may not last longer than 250 hours per year. The Labor Act does not provide for any exceptions to this restriction, which means that no worker may work longer than stated.
Legislative regulation on working time in Croatia faces serious implementation problems due to rigid employment legislation and bureaucratic obligations for employers and high fines. Furthermore, the wording is sometimes unclear and complicated, which causes difficulty in complying with legal obligations. The amendments introduce a few novelties in relation to flexibility for employers while including derogations only by collective agreements. Trade union confederations and some NOGs have criticized the working time provisions from a gender perspective for not taking into account the fact that in Croatia the majority of household responsibilities (including family care) still fall on women.
Until 2017, companies could take advantage of a measure called non-working Fridays (for instance, Law on the Support for Preservation of Jobs 93/2014). If employers had been able to prove that they were facing financial difficulties, the public employment service would have paid the difference between a full working week's wage and a four-day working week's one for employees. The difference could not overcome the minimum net salary, employers were still obliged to pay all social security contributions for a full working week and could use the measure only temporarily (up to six months). According to the public employment service's annual reports, job preservation subsidies amounted to HRK 20,139 (€2,700) in 2009 and HRK 26,409 (€3,515) in 2010. The law provided monetary support to 703 employees in 2012 and to 1,310 employees in 2013. No expenditures were accounted for this measure between 2014 and 2016.
The tool was intended for companies in financial difficulties to retain the workforce which was prepared to continue working full-time when the need occurred. Ultimately, the law aimed at preventing dismissals, as well as long-term damage for businesses. The instrument was abolished in 2017 because it was claimed that it did not yield desired outcomes. Elements of weakness pointed to cumbersome procedures for documentation, to potential risks and to insufficient funds available to employers. Moreover, monitoring mechanisms were not able to detect misuses of the policy as a cost-saving opportunity.
According to the Labour Act (OG 93/14, 127/17, 98/19, 151/22, 64/23), Article 60, working time in Croatia is any period during which the worker is obliged to be at work, at the employer's disposal (on stand-by) to carry out his duties in accordance with the employer's instructions, at his working place or another place determined by the employer. The period during which the worker is available for the employer's request for performance of works, should a need arise, shall not be regarded as working time, where the worker is neither located at his working place nor at another place determined by the employer. The availability period and remuneration shall be regulated by the employment contract or collective agreement. The period during which the worker is at work upon the employer's request shall be deemed working time, notwithstanding whether the works are performed at the place determined by the employer or the place selected by the worker. According to the Labour Act, if a worker is staying at work and not working but waiting to carry out work, he or she is on duty (dezurstvo), but it is regular working time. If a worker is not working and not at work but at home or near work and comes to work just in case something comes up, that is standby (pripravnost), and that is not considered working time. The difference is that standby does not count in working hours and restrictions unless such an employee is activated and is obliged to come to work.
Eurofound (2015), Croatia: Working time flexibility, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/working-time-flexibility/croatia
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