The Croatian Employers Association (HUP) and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on Thursday welcomed the government's decision to increase this year's quotas for the seasonal employment of foreigners, notably considering the demand for workers in the sectors of tourism, agriculture and construction, but they noted that the quota system and the education system had to be changed to suit labour market needs better. Earlier in the day the government endorsed a decision to increase the quotas for the seasonal employment of foreigners to 35,500.
The number of work permits in tourism has been increased from 4,660 to 8,660, and the number of permits in agriculture from 500 to 1,000.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that the government was also focused on hiring unemployed Croats.
"Market demands, increases of all indicators in the pre-season and announcements of a more successful tourism season demand more workers," he said, adding that the government was making sure that there was no lack of workers in the hospitality industry during the coming summer season.
"We expect the Ministry of the Interior to step up its work and process as soon as possible applications for work permits that have already been submitted by foreign nationals looking for employment as auxiliary staff in the tourism industry," said HUP director Davor Majetic.
The tourism sector is faced with a number of challenges, and human potential is one of the biggest, HUP said, noting that the tourism industry was investing effort into improving employment and work conditions so as to become competitive in relation to neighbouring countries.
The HGK said that the private sector had been pointing for years to the need to systematically deal with the problem of human potential in the tourism sector.
"The HGK has underlined, on a number of occasions, the need to systematically deal with this problem through short and long-term measures such as the signing of bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries, tax breaks and the introduction of a dual system of vocational education in which the HGK would be one of the intermediaries between the employers and the school system," said the HGK.
(Hina)
News
