ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - Bozo Zaja, Croatian Deputy Labour Minister who chairs the commission in charge of the issuance of work permits on Tuesday forwarded a letter to the Croatian Workers' Society (HRS), informing it that he has no
information about problems in the payment of salaries to Croatians who work abroad with the assistance of Croatian companies. On Monday the HRS sent a letter to Croatian Government's competent commission claiming that Croatian workers abroad had problems with foreign employers in the payment of the earned salaries. The HRS cited some workers as complaining that foreign employers, namely Germans, are calculating a smaller number of working hours than the workers really have and that they are also paying lessened amounts for the workers' pension and public health insurance. Referring to a contract concluded between Germany and the former Yugosla
ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - Bozo Zaja, Croatian Deputy Labour Minister
who chairs the commission in charge of the issuance of work permits
on Tuesday forwarded a letter to the Croatian Workers' Society
(HRS), informing it that he has no information about problems in the
payment of salaries to Croatians who work abroad with the
assistance of Croatian companies.
On Monday the HRS sent a letter to Croatian Government's competent
commission claiming that Croatian workers abroad had problems with
foreign employers in the payment of the earned salaries. The HRS
cited some workers as complaining that foreign employers, namely
Germans, are calculating a smaller number of working hours than the
workers really have and that they are also paying lessened amounts
for the workers' pension and public health insurance.
Referring to a contract concluded between Germany and the former
Yugoslavia (SFRY) on the labour issues which Croatia has taken
over, the HRS cited an example from the construction industry where
the lowest pay before stoppages is 18.5 German marks per hour, and
14.2 DM per hour as the net hourly wage. The workers in question
complained that one company paid them 12.5 DM as the pay before
stoppages.
Zaja responded that each country carried out controls about the
respect of the contract on its territory and Germany had not yet
notified Croatia of possible violations of relevant regulations.
In this context the Croatian official stressed that Germans were
well known for conducting strict and regular controls as regards
labour legislation.
According to the information the Croatian commission possesses,
salaries in Germany are paid in accordance with collective
contracts and the competent German bodies supervise permanently
it.
In case that there were concrete facts and relevant evidence on the
breach of regulations and workers' rights, the Croatian
Government's commission would take adequate measures, read Zaja's
letter.
He added that the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), which
supervise the work of Croatian firms that send workers abroad, and
the Croatian Construction Workers' Union were asked to give their
opinion on the matter.
The HUP has responded that all those firms work regularly and in
compliance with German law and rules. The HUP has called on the HRS
to give concrete data on that case of the cut in salaries. The
employers' association viewed yesterday's letter of the HRS as
incorrect as the society generalised about the thing and created a
bad image about 160 companies with over 4,800 employees.
The aforementioned union also called on the HRS to discover the
identity of the company in question.
Zaja added that the Croatian Government's commission in charge of
granting work permits would soon publish data on lowest hourly pays
and forward the information to Croatian unions.
(hina) ms