ZAGREB, Sept 19 (Hina) - Party benches of the five-party ruling coalition and the national minority bench at the Croatian parliament on Wednesday night endorsed a draft set of social laws, assessing the present budget could not manage
the current social bonuses. The biggest party in the Opposition, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), refused to give the laws its support. On behalf of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Darinka Orel, said Croatia is setting aside 26 percent of the GDP for social welfare, which, she claimed, even the richest countries could not handle. She also warned about the problem of fictional employment and false address documents to be granted the right to maternity bonuses, citing information that 400,000 employees were registered as receiving minimal wages. It is this necessary, she asserted, to establish a uniform registry of all employees and introduce a social welfare card to preven
ZAGREB, Sept 19 (Hina) - Party benches of the five-party ruling
coalition and the national minority bench at the Croatian
parliament on Wednesday night endorsed a draft set of social laws,
assessing the present budget could not manage the current social
bonuses. The biggest party in the Opposition, the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ), refused to give the laws its support.
On behalf of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Darinka
Orel, said Croatia is setting aside 26 percent of the GDP for social
welfare, which, she claimed, even the richest countries could not
handle.
She also warned about the problem of fictional employment and false
address documents to be granted the right to maternity bonuses,
citing information that 400,000 employees were registered as
receiving minimal wages.
It is this necessary, she asserted, to establish a uniform registry
of all employees and introduce a social welfare card to prevent the
accumulation of social bonuses.
Orel gave her support to lessening maternity leave to employed
mothers and granting childbirth allowance to unemployed mothers.
All European countries, apart from Slovenia and Norway, allow
maternity leave of up to seven months, she added.
Vesna Skare Ozbolt criticised the draft social laws on behalf of the
opposition's Democratic Centre (DC), warning that even the least of
mistakes in passing the social reform could cause catastrophic
consequences in a country where the birth rate tags far behind the
death rate, such as Croatia is.
The DC holds the rescinding of maternity leave of one to three years
as unacceptable.
Ljubica Lalic supported the draft, on behalf of the HSLS, asserting
the laws would introduce more fairness into the system.
Zlatko Kramaric of the Liberal Party/Croatian People's Party
(LS/HNS) bench said he endorsed the government's efforts to
introduce more order in social bonuses, but, he added he "got the
impression the government is not moving these measures on its own
initiative, but under the pressures of international financial
institutions".
He asserted the government should explain why some measures are
being moved, and what their effects might be.
On behalf of the HDZ bench, Ivo Sanader refused to give support to
the government's package of social laws, stressing these were
"antisocial measures which lead to a further decline of citizens'
living standard". The HDZ will not support the draft also because it
decreases social rights linearly and does not introduce more
fairness into the system, Sanader stressed.
MPs of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) endorsed the package of
laws because, Snjezana Biga Friganovic said, because it spurs a
decentralisation of the social welfare system, so a part of the
responsibility will be transferred to individuals and non-
government organisations. She also holds, however, that the
measures would bring in more order into the chaos of many years in
the social rights sphere.
The Croatian Parliament tonight continued the discussion about
seven bills on the rationalisation of social contributions.
(hina) lml