LABOUR MINISTER PRESENTS ADDITIONAL EMPLOYMENT MEASURES

ZAGREB, Dec 17 (Hina) - Additional employment measures could result in the employment of 20 per cent of the 330,000 unemployed people in Croatia, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Joso Skara, said at Friday's Government news conference. The motioned additional measures, adopted by the Government at last week's for the implementation of the national employment policy will complement existing measures of the active policy. The measures relate to the employment of trainees in bodies of state administration and public institutions, skilled and unskilled workers with no craft experiences, women above 45 years of age and 20 years of service, and men above 50 years of age and 25 years of service who have been on the Croatian Employment Bureau lists for a long time, the employment of disabled persons and the unemployed in undeveloped regions and the town of Vukovar. Croatian Homeland War invalids will have a priority in employment. Skara stressed that the Croatian Employment Bureau has ensured 70 million kuna (about US$ 9.3million for the employment of trainees), while the amount of funds invested for the employment of other categories of people would depend on the interest of the employer. During the last several years the Bureau granted 372 requests for stimulation, spending 203 million kuna (about US$27 million), resulting in the employment of 47,100 people, Skara said. Asked why these measures were being adopted in the time before elections, Skara said it was necessary to carry out a review of the current situation of the Croatian economy. He added some previous abuse of employment stimuli would not be repeated, as the Employment Bureau has established a good supervision of employers' fulfilled duties. (hina) lml