UNION, EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION, STATE INSPECTORATE ON MOONLIGHTING IN TOURISM

RIJEKA, April 3 (Hina) - The president of the Independent Union of Croatian Catering and Tourism (SSUTH), Vesna Dejanovic, told Thursday's news conference that "moonlighting is flourishing in catering", that "some employers are treating workers as slaves", and that "the biggest obstacle to solving such problems lies with the judiciary". #L# The most frequent examples of violations of workers' rights are no written contracts or illegal contracts, the illegal payment of wages, the payment of wages the amount of which is lower than stipulated in the collective agreement, threats to sack employees and work without an established plan for vacations. All this creates unfair competition among employers and hinders the work of those who are trying to do business in line with laws, she said. Chief state inspector Branko Jordanic said that lately, there had been complaints about people working as slaves and were, for example, not allowed to laugh in the work place. In 2000, the state inspectorate established 3,462 cases of unregistered activities in catering and tourism. It suggests that companies in which such activities are taking place be closed down immediately. During the same year, the inspectorate discovered 7,624 moonlighters, of whom 1,175 were foreign citizens without working permits. According to estimates, some 150,000 people worked illegally last year. Illegal overtime was done by 8,888 people, and more than 7,000 workers did not receive wages. Jasna Kulusic of Rijeka's branch of the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) said that the news conference had been called so that the union, the HUP and the state inspectorate could send a message to employees that somebody was caring about them and that they should be more courageous in solving the problem of moonlighting. (hina) lml sb