TUAC welcomes several recommendations in the OECD Labour Market Review for Croatia, published today, but regrets the report’s failure to include recommendations on collective bargaining, minimum wage and social dialogue.
The review addresses Croatia’s labour market difficulties, including a low employment rate of 68.8% – substantially below the OECD average of 70.5% – and one of the widest disability employment gaps across European countries. Women face particular barriers, spending nearly 20 hours more per week than men on unpaid work, partly due to underdeveloped formal care services.
Trade unions endorse the OECD’s recommendations to expand early childhood education and care, modernise vocational education and training, and reinforce efforts to promote disability employment. Croatia has taken positive steps in recent years, including restricting successive fixed-term contracts, regulating platform work, and introducing a voucher system for adult learning.
However, TUAC challenges the OECD’s recommendation to extend working lives and reduce spending on incapacity-related benefits. With Croatia’s gross median pension income at just 35% of median earnings – compared to an EU average of 60% – pushing workers to delay retirement risks deepening old-age poverty rather than addressing its root causes.
TUAC also argues the review’s recommendation to “monitor” non-standard work is too weak, as very short-term contracts remain widespread across tourism, industry and construction. Trade unions criticise the review for not including firmer language to encourage concrete government action.
The review also fails to address several priorities. In 2024, Croatia’s minimum wage stood at just 47% of the median wage – below both neighbouring Slovenia and the OECD average – yet the review includes no recommendation to increase it. This gap is especially significant given Croatia’s brain drain challenge: high emigration since EU accession in 2013 has driven severe skilled worker shortages, and improving job quality through stronger collective bargaining could help reverse this trend.
On social dialogue, trade union representatives criticise the Economic and Social Council’s functioning, pointing to irregular meetings and insufficient information flows. Academic experts suggest revising the ESC’s mandate could improve tripartite dialogue; however, the review is silent on this.
Pushing workers to delay retirement while ignoring the case for higher minimum wages and stronger collective bargaining gets the priorities backwards. Croatian workers need better pay and stronger voice, not longer working lives.
