Report from the LISC National Meeting, 15 April 2021

The National Meeting was held in the International Hotel in Zagreb on 15 April 2021. The meeting was supposed to be organized in two days duration, however due to the Covid-19 pandemics and other circumstances it lasted one day.
The meeting was organized in line with all the epidemiological recommendations at the time which allowed the maximum of 25 participants indoors, while maintaining social distance and using protection equipment.
The meeting was attended by SMH-IS shop stewards, experts and President, Project experts, the representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Politics (MROSP) and the Labour Inspection (LI). Participation of the institutional representatives was organized with different technical support.
The first presentation entitled “Presentation of Norwegian best practices for implementation in Croatia and continuation of work on the LISC project by establishing working bodies / forms of work (WRC, WRA and IB)” was given by Ana Milićević Pezelj, Executive Secretary of SSSH for Social Dialogue and Public Policies, chief expert on the LISC project. The presentation covers the previous work done on the Project, especially the recommendations of the best Norwegian practices applicable in Croatia and important for the continuation of work on the development of the guide “Decent Work Program” and the accompanying curriculum for the education of trade unionists-labor rights advisers.
Irena Bačelić, Head of the Labor Market Sector, Directorate for the Labor Market and Employment, and Lana Lukačić, Head of the Labor Market Monitoring and Harmonization Service, spoke about the creation of labor market policies based on relevant data sources and the role of MROSP in that process. The focus of the presentation was on the changes in the area of labor and employment, especially driven by the digital and green transition, with which the education system, including adult education and training, must keep pace. Although new technologies will result in job creation, they will also result in a number of disruptions, as a number of workers will have to change careers. It is necessary for current and future workers to be provided with competencies that will guarantee employability and adaptability throughout their working lives and enable their periodic renewal. The experts spoke in general about the role of the MROSP in collecting relevant data on the labor market and stressed that the MROSP has an active role in the development and entry in the register of occupational standards, within the Croatian Qualifications Framework, in accordance with which the Ministry of Science and Education develops qualification standards. The experts presented to the participants the Portal for advanced monitoring of the labor market and education, which is still under development but should become the leading tool for connecting the labor market and the education system.
Irena Cvitanović, senior specialist advisor, Directorate for Labor and Safety at Work, MROSP, spoke about the opinions that MROSP prepares on specific issues of workers, employers, unions, etc., and she joined the meeting with a video link. She emphasized that opinions are legally non-binding but very useful to anyone who for clarification of the provisions the provisions of the Labor Law and the Law on Occupational Safety, and in any case it is a tool that can be used in the future by trade union advisers for labor rights.
Marina Šošić, Senior Labor Inspector, Labor Inspection Sector at the State Inspectorate spoke about how the Labor Inspection works and how to contact it, who joined in with a recorded video message and a ppt presentation. She especially pointed out the most common violations of labor rights and rights in the field of occupational safety and explained how it is possible to contact the Labor Inspectorate and arrange the arrival of labor inspectors or labor safety inspectors in a specific environment where labor rights are considered to be violated.
The concept of SSSH Work tailored to man, created after an independent survey commissioned by SSSH (2018) on employee satisfaction with their jobs and then the Portal radpomjeri.eu, was presented by Sunčica Brnardić, SSSH advisor for labor and social law, an expert on LISC project. She defined decent work as a complete whole of six different dimensions that make up a quality workplace and explained the requirements related to each of them: a well-paid job, which does not endanger physical or mental health, which enables learning and advancement, provides security, enables voting in the workplace it leaves room for private life and its planning. She also talked about how to increase the quality of jobs, emphasizing the role of trade union organization of workers, the role of trade union commissioners, unions and SSSH and the importance of the collective agreement as an instrument to increase workers’ rights above the level regulated by the Labor Law. The radpomjeri.eu portal was created as part of the latest SSSH project with the aim of informing workers about their rights and the importance and manner of trade union organization..
In the continuation of the meeting, Ana Milićević Pezelj explained what the task of the participants is through working in small groups and stressed the importance of their recommendations for the development of guides and curricula and for the development of tools for the establishment of the Work Information System (LISC) through the WRC, WRA and IB.
At the end of the meeting, the rapporteurs of each group reported on the discussions during the task and the results. Regarding the expectations from the guide “Decent Work Program” and the project activities that follow, participants expressed the need for structured information and guidelines concerning individual labor law (forms of employment contracts, wages, organization of working hours, occupational safety, etc.) and collective labor relations (the role of trade unions and other workers’ representatives, their mutual cooperation at the level of the employer, social dialogue and collective bargaining at all levels, etc.). In line with the objectives of the LISC project, the needs expressed by the participants will be crucially linked to the best Norwegian/Nordic practices applicable in Croatia at all levels of social dialogue and collective bargaining..