Government adopts Minimum Wage Bill

The government on Friday adopted the Minimum Wage Bill under which the amount of the minium wage would be defined by a government regulation. It said that the aim of the bill was to protect workers' standard of living.
 

"The government should determine the amount of the minimum wage by a regulation before agreeing on all other parameters, such as the state budget, before the end of the year, in consultation with the social partners," Labour and Pension System Minister Mirando Mrsic told the Cabinet meeting.
The bill takes into account various problems in different branches of industry, such as a low rate of accumulation, and provides that collective agreements may define a lower minimum wage, but it may not be below 95% of the amount defined for other workers in the country.
After the passage of the bill, the government aims to pass a minimum wage regulation for 2013 and the coming years. "We believe that in that way we will protect workers' standard of living and will not allow the minimum wage to be below the poverty line," Mrsic said.
The government also proposed amending the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) Act to increase the number of HBOR Supervisory Board members from nine to ten.
"In the coming years a great portion of project financing by the state will go through the HBOR and I think we need a Cabinet minister there," Finance Minister Slavko Linic.
Linic said that the government had paid more than 9 billion kuna in subsidies in 2011, or 2.7% of GDP, adding that the EU average was 1% and the eurozone average 0.5%.
"This is one of the main causes of the high budget deficit and it shows that we must take a different approach to sectors such as shipbuilding, railways and agriculture," Linic said.
(Hina)

 

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