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GENERAL
CONTENT OF THE WORK CONTRACT
DURATION OF THE WORK CONTRACT
AGE LIMIT FOR THE CONTRACTING OF THE WORK CONTRACT
TRIAL WORK
WORKING HOURS
VACATIONS AND LEAVE
SALARIES
TERMINATION OF THE WORK CONTRACT
SEVERANCE COMPENSATION

GENERAL

The main legislative framework regarding the labour relations is determined by the Labour Act. The provisions of that act guarantee the safety both for the employer and for the employee. Some specific issues (for ex. health insurance and education) are dealt with in detail by special laws or international agreements in force in Croatia.

The labour relations can be determined also by the collective agreement contracted between one or more employers or an association of employers on the one part, and one or more labour unions on the other part.

Every employer employing more than 20 employees has to have a company labour relations by-laws covering those areas of the labour relations which are not strictly defined by the Labour Act, leaving to the parties a free choice between a number of options.

CONTENT OF THE WORK CONTRACT

The Labour Act determines that the employment is based on a work contract. Even though the work contract is customarily concluded in written form, the lack of such a written contract does not influence the existence and validity of the work contract. In the event that the work contract has not been written, the employer must give the employee, before the start of the work, a written statement about the contracted work contract.

The work contract can contain the following clauses:

1. about the parties and their residence, i.e. seat;
2. working location, if there is no fixed or main work location then a note about the work being performed on different locations;
3. name, nature or type of work for which the employee is being employed or a short list and description of the work;
4. day of beginning of work;
5. expected duration of the contract, in the case of the temporary work contract;
6. duration of the paid vacation for which the employee is entitled to, and in the event that such information cannot be given at the time of signing of the contract a way in which the lasting of the vacation time will be determined;
7. period of notice to be followed by the employee and by the employer, and in the event that such an information cannot be given at the time of signing of the contract, a way in which the period of notice will be determined;
8. basic salary, salary bonuses and the period in which the salary will be paid;
9. duration of the ordinary working day or week;

Instead of the clauses 6, 7, 8 and 9 the work contract can refer to the relevant laws, other regulations, collective agreements or labour regulations defining these issues.

DURATION OF THE WORK CONTRACT

The work contract is usually stipulated permanently, but exceptionally it can be contracted temporarily in cases when the termination is determined by objective reasons, i.e. certain deadlines, completion of a work or the occurrence of an event. This category includes: seasonal jobs, temporary replacements for absentees, temporary increase of the work load, temporary jobs for which the employer needs additional working force, seafarers’ crews and other cases envisaged by the law. The duration of the work contract can be established with a set date or it can be determined by an event after which the work contract will be terminated (for ex. the return of the absentee from the sick leave). The Labour Act limits the duration of the temporary work contract if such a contract lasts consecutively for more than 3 years, except in cases of replacement of absentees when the period can be prolonged.

AGE LIMIT FOR CONTRACTING THE WORK CONTRACT

The minimal legal age for the contracting of a work contract is 15.

TRIAL WORK

It is possible to contract a trial work period whose duration is established by the employer, but in no case it can exceed 6 months.

WORKING HOURS

There are two basic categories:

• full time employment
• short time employment

For jobs on which, even with the protection measures, is not possible to protect the employee from damaging influences, the working hours are shortened in proportion to the damaging effect of the work upon the health and the working capacity of the employee, therefore this are considered as shorter hours. In the case of a higher force, of the unpredicted increase in the volume of work, and in other cases of dire need, the employee has to, upon the employer’s request, work longer hours, i.e. work overtime, but not more than 10 hours a week.

The full working time cannot exceed 40 hours per week.

VACATIONS AND LEAVE

The Labour Act determines that during the working hours there should be a minimal break of 30 minutes for a 6-hour working day. Between two consecutive working days, the employee has the right to a day break of at least 12 consecutive hours. The Act also defines the weekly vacation and the yearly vacation lasting at least 18 working days. It also defines the right to a paid leave lasting at the most 7 days (marriage, death in the family, birth of a child). Upon the employees request, the employer can grant an unpaid leave during which all the rights and obligations from the work contract are not in force.

SALARIES

The Act defines the obligation of establishing a gross salary to be cited the work contract and to be paid to the employee for his work. Moreover, the act defines a minimal gross salary to be paid, which is defined according to the employee’s qualifications.

TERMINATION OF THE WORK CONTRACT

There are two basic types of termination of the work contract:

• Regular termination of the work contract
• Non-regular termination of the work contract

The termination of the work contract as a partial declaration of the employer’s will, must be delivered to the employee in writing. The employee has the right to raise an objection, in the next 15 days, to the employer’s decision.

For the decision about the termination of the contract, the employer must have a valid reason and the law has classified the reasons as follows:

• if there is no longer the need for the performance of a certain type of job due to economic, technical or organisational reasons (business influenced termination),
• if the employee cannot regularly perform his duties established by the contract due to certain characteristics or skills (personally influenced termination)
• if the employee breaches the obligations from the work contract (termination influenced by the employee’s misconduct).

The business and personally influenced terminations are allowed only if the employer cannot engage the employee on some other job.

The termination deadline is determined by the length of the labour relation and is defined by law (varies between two weeks for employees employed for less than a year to three months for employees whose work contract lasted consecutively for 20 years).

SEVERANCE COMPENSATION

In the event of a regular termination of the work contract, the employee has the right to a severance compensation whose amount is determined by the length of the labour relation with the same employer. The severance compensation amount is determined as one third of the average salary in the last three months and for every year of work for the same employer. The employee working less than a year with the same employer does not have the right to a severance compensation.