Hrvatska udruga sindikata – HUS

Being the only confederation that voted against the governmental package of crisis measures that include the linear incomes tax and the 1%-increase of the value added tax, our presidium has decided to organize the protests, and to invite Croatian trade unions to join and support the protests. Other confederations and their leaders were not welcome to participate on stage because our presidium was of the opinion that their conduct regarding the mentioned governmental step is not acceptable. Opširnije »

In negotiations with the government and other trade union confederations in Croatia which were held in order to find a suitable solution for the Budget deficit, the first idea was to decrease the wages in public services. During the 3-days-sessions, the idea has changed into a linear income tax for all the workers and pensioneers, with a 1% increase of the value added tax.
HUS was the only confederation that voted against that proposal, and unfortunately, our Parliament has voted a new legislation which already forces Croatian workers to give more from their wages to Government. Opširnije »

ASBESTOS CAMPAIGN: One of the most important issues that some categories of workers in Croatia have been facing is the problem of asbestos. It culminated in the factory „Salonit“ where we had the co-existing problems in securing the workers´ working status due to the bankruptcy of the company, providing the adequate treatment of their OHS status, parallel with the actions on protection of the environment, while the factory is accommodated in a very inhabited area nearby the Adriatic Sea (Split Region). Using the means of industrial actions and a very tight cooperation with the local ecological NGO, we have forced the government to negotiate with us in order to reach the solution. The agreement has been concluded: workers have obtained the level of rights guaranteed by the relevant international standards, the environment will be cleaned by workers themselves, and they will be entitled to reparation settled by a special commission formed by relevant experts and social partners, while the workers are represented by our confederation. During this campaigning unfortunately we had no support from the other unions in Croatia, who had no interest as they have no members there.

PRIVATISATION WITH SOCIAL FACE: The president of HUS is a member of the governing body of Croatian Privatisation Fund (CPF) behalf of six Croatian trade union confederations. Taking part in every session of CPF, he is devoted to insisting on securing the social component of privatisation of state companies, and in this he has established close cooperation with the other confederations. This policy is mostly implemented by agreeing the social clauses wherever possible. Numbers of social clauses were concluded when government declared that this praxis has to be stopped, due to the request of the European Commission set in negotiations between Croatia and the EU. On July 4th HUS has filed a case before the Croatian State Attorney, requesting publicly for a criminal prosecution of the responsible state officials within the Government and the structures in charge for negotiations with the EU. We will keep you informed on the follow up.
This issue is especially important for the forthcoming privatisation of shipbuilding industry in which our confederation has majority of the membership. HUS has succeeded that the most of our requests were included in the list of requirements for the public contest that was announced recently.

FIGHTING FOR TRANSPARENCY: HUS has recently succeeded to achieve putting out of legal power of the book of regulation for the licensing in construction industry by which the Government has set the conditions favourable only for the biggest companies. The situation lead to insecurity of numerous working places, but in cooperation with other subjects present in that field, we have managed to put this rulebook out of validity, and forced the Government to solve this problem trough the regular legislation process, including the consultations with the relevant social partners.

PROTEST RELLY: The HUS has actively took part in organising and conducting the protest rally, together with four other confederations (SSSH, NHS, UNICRO and MHS) that took place in Zagreb on April 12th, which gathered more than 50,000 workers from different parts of Croatia. This rally gave us new strength and has improved the cooperation among the unions.

WOMEN AND YOUTH REGIONAL COOPERATION: The cooperation within Croatia and region has resulted in projects lead mostly by the Women’s and Youth coordinations, which took place on June 20th (project It’s Time!). This activity, jointly organised with the UATUC and NHS youth structures, aimed to animate young people for membership, organised in 10 regional capitals simultaneously). On October 7th, World Day for Decent Work, we took part, together with the UATUC and NSH in different activities, especially making public presentation of the research results on the position of women employed in short-term employments contracts. Our Women’s Coordination closely cooperates with the UATUC Women’s Section and has organised many events in the last year period.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES: Our members have participated in several international trainings and gatherings such as SEED, Youth training in ITC Turin, Women conferences in Bulgaria and Montenegro and Youth conference in Skopje, being the active members of respective regional networks.