Croatia celebrates Labor Day

Labor Day, May 1st, an international day dedicated to workers and their rights, was celebrated across Croatia on Friday, mainly organized by cities and municipalities, and at some celebrations, such as the one in Zagreb's Maksimir Park, citizens were joined by union representatives.

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović conveyed greetings to workers on Labor Day, but he also pointed out that Croatian workers do not have much reason to celebrate today. He highlighted the problem of inflation, which, he said, needs to be stopped because it is already threatening the living standards of most people.

"The continuous rise in prices, especially in recent months, is a serious, even existential problem for the Croatian people. The shocking inflation that we have not seen for years cannot be ignored, nor justified solely by global causes that have certainly contributed to the rise in prices, but are not the only cause. And when it comes to the rights and standards of workers, I am convinced that nothing irritates the Croatian people as much as corruption and dishonesty. Dealing with the increasing cost of living or the uncertainty of employment and salary is especially difficult for a person when they see that knowledge, experience and dedication are not valued, and especially when they know that public money is being used illegally without serious sanctions," said Milanović.

In his greeting, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković pointed out that unemployment in Croatia is at the lowest ever recorded.

“I think that in the past 10 years we have made important steps forward in terms of increasing salaries, and generally in terms of developing the country. The dynamic situation on the work market speaks of this - one million seven hundred and thirty thousand people are employed today in Croatia. We have come to unemployment which is only at 67.5 thousand people, and these are numbers that none of us have seen before,” said the Prime Minister.

Social Democratic Party President Siniša Hajdaš Dončić participated in the celebration of International Labor Day organized by the Trogir branch of his party. Speaking about the position of workers and working conditions, he emphasized that he advocates for shorter working hours and the inclusion of unions in company management.

“For the Social Democratic Party workers are definitely not potentates who back down to big capital and extra profit; that is a different political option. We propose shortening the work week and a different primary distribution. Primary distribution is the distribution within a company. There has never been a bigger difference between personal income and capital that is extracted from Croatia. This is where action is needed,” said Hajdaš Dončić.

Source: HRT