Croatian Unions Demand Ban on Outsourcing

The initiative led by 17 unions said that outsourcing in the public sector would “leave the workers at the mercy of private employers and the market”.

“We gathered the signatures and we demand parliament hold a referendum. Otherwise, there will be trouble,” said one of the union leaders, Zeljko Stipic

He said that the unions still had to check some signatures but that the final figure would be around half a million. A total of 450,000 is needed to trigger a referendum.

The signatures will be delivered to parliament on July 10, so the referendum can be held by the beginning of autumn.

The move came in response to the government’s strategy of outsourcing non-core activities in order to cut excessive budget spending, announced in March by Milanka Opacic, minister of Social Welfare and Youth.

But the unions are demanding a law against the outsourcing of supporting and non-core activities such as cleaning, maintenance, cooking, security and transport within the public education and healthcare system, as well as in other state institutions.

Dragutin Lesar, former president and founder of the Croatian Labour party, said government and businessmen were colluding for private profit.

“It is impossible to claim that employees’ rights will remain the same while the state saves and the private entrepreneurs earn money,” he said.

After widespread criticism of the strategy, officials have said they will create an outsourcing model which involves the founding of a state-owned company that will employ the workers whose jobs are outsourced.

Opacic said that this would save around 280 million kuna (approximately 37 million euro), but that “later these savings will be bigger”.

However, the unions...