Insufficient Quota for the Workforce Import: All Construction Workers Employed Within the Two Days Period!

“Although we concur with Government’s decision to accept the request of the CCE, Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, Croatian Employers’ Association and of the syndicate, and we also agree with its approval of the quota for the employment of the foreign workers, after the analysis of the current situation, we can tell that the quota is definitely insufficient”, says Mirjana Čagalj, Vice President for Construction, Transportation and Connectivity at the CCE, appealing to the Government of the Republic of Croatia to approve the more satisfying quota.

“Labour force is leaving Croatia. We are losing entire families. This is not only a big demographic problem, but also a huge economy issue. Our economy cannot be competitive enough if we do not provide our economists with enough labour force”, says Čagalj.

President of the Construction Association at the CCE Zlatko Sirovec claims that the quota is insufficient since the construction market currently needs about a couple of thousand workers, thus the quota should be approved according to real, needed numbers. “500 workers is unacceptably low quota. Workers were employed literarily within the two days period”, explains Sirovec and adds that larger quota is essential.

“Approved quota of 70 truck drivers in the current year is really insufficient, even though it is several times larger than the last year’s quota. Our transportation is already not as competitive as some of the neighbour countries and we cannot expect any improvement with the quota like this one”, explains Darko Vukadinović, President of the Freight Road Transport Association at the CCE.

Compliant to the decision on the approval of the annual quota for the employment of the foreign workers for the year 2016, new employments will cover 2300 vehicles. The biggest number of licenses (1500) is in the shipbuilding sector.