We began in 2019 with a daily review of the N1 television portal, Novi list and Workers’ Rights, with occasional supplements from other relevant media, recording workers’ actions at 34 different employers, whereby when an action was directed at an entire sector (e.g. schools, universities), we used the collective name of the sector.

Using the same methodology, in 2020 we recorded actions at 12 employers. The following year, we registered actions at 17 employers, which is a slight increase in protest activities compared to 2020, but the growth primarily came from dissatisfaction with vaccination, COVID certificates and testing in the public sector. In 2022, we recorded actions at 21 employers, with the number of “unorthodox” methods (e.g. taking sick leave to pressure employers, refusing to return assigned equipment, destroying superiors’ property and the like) significantly decreasing in favour of “traditional” forms of struggle: protests and strikes.

In 2023, we registered workers’ actions at 24 employers, continuing the trend of growth in the direction of the pre-pandemic 2019, which has still not been reached. This year, we record actions at 22 employers, which represents stagnation compared to the continuous growth over the past four years. It is important, as in previous summaries, to keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive but only an approximate overview, so caution is necessary when drawing conclusions.

January was opened by judges and state prosecutors with a two-week white strike, demanding the adoption of the Law on Salary and Material Rights of Judicial Officials. At the end of the month, journalists protested in Split and Zagreb regarding amendments to the Criminal Code, popularly called Lex AP, which significantly limit reporting on criminal investigations.

Journalists open February with a vigil for journalists killed in Gaza. Physiotherapists protest in front of the Ministry of Health due to the non-recognition of masters of physiotherapy in the Regulation on job titles and coefficients of job complexity in public services. Education and science workers were also dissatisfied with the mentioned regulation on coefficients, so they organised a large protest rally in St. Mark’s Square, which gathered teachers from all over Croatia. Journalists closed the month with a gathering in support of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

March brought another protest by primary and secondary school teachers, dissatisfied with the Regulation on coefficients, who this time gathered in Zagreb’s European Square, organised by the School Union Preporod. Workers at the Port of Zadar went on strike, dissatisfied with the wages paid by the Chinese owner. On the fourth day of the strike, the County Court in Zadar declared the strike illegal and ordered the workers to return to work. Let us point out, as a bizarre curiosity, that the commissioner of the Transport and Communications Union at the Port of Zadar refused to give a statement to a reporter from Zagreb’s Novosti.

In April, we did not record any workers’ actions, so we cite one positive outcome: despite the ban on strikes, Port of Zadar workers managed to win wage increases.

May brings a protest by professional firefighters in Zagreb’s St. Mark’s Square, who gathered prompted by announcements from certain local and regional government units that they would shut down public fire brigades due to lack of funding, but also wanting to put pressure on the Croatian Firefighters Association and the Government. However, we will remember the month for strikes in preschool education, specifically in kindergartens in Slunj, Vrsar and Biograd na Moru, all organised by the Union of Education, Media and Culture. The reason for the strike was unsuccessful collective bargaining aimed at agreeing on the minimum wage prescribed by the Law on Preschool Education. Varteks workers went on strike due to non-payment of wages partly for February and for the entire March. The strike was ended after 10 days after the appointment of a new management board and an agreement on the payment of outstanding claims.

Kindergarten strikes continued into June. The strike in Slunj ended after 5 weeks without signing a collective agreement but with the requested wage increase and paid strike days. The strike in Vrsar ended after 6 weeks with a great victory for the workers, as the city administration agreed to sign a collective agreement. The strike in Biograd continued into the next month without agreement. Uber taxi drivers protested in Split, dissatisfied with the low prices imposed by the application. Workers from the City Gasworks Zagreb - Supply protested in front of the company headquarters, concerned about their jobs after losing a tender for household supply. Pula nursery teachers, organised by the Kvarner, Istria and Dalmatia Union, protested due to low wages. The protest was held after five rounds of mediation did not lead to an agreement with the city administration on wage levels.

July brought the suspension of the strike at the kindergarten in Biograd na Moru. After 2 months of struggle, the union decided to suspend the strike due to the summer decrease in workload, without meeting the demands. We also note the analysis by industrial relations sociologist Dragan Bagić from the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy, who emphasises the watershed significance of all three kindergarten strikes for future union activities. Varaždin’s Varteks, after more than 60 days in blockade, declared bankruptcy. Workers will receive part of their claims through the Agency for the Insurance of Workers’ Claims. Workers at the Pula cement factory Calucem went on a four-hour warning strike demanding a 20% wage increase. Nine days later, an agreement was reached increasing wages by 17.5%.

In August, we recorded a protest rally of health workers from the island of Krk, warning about the collapse of primary health care and increasingly difficult working conditions. After going on mass sick leave in previous months, workers at the Split city company that takes care of the Lovrinac cemeteries managed to win a new collective agreement, which increased wages by an average of 20%. Dubrovnik taxi drivers organised a protest after the death of an Uber driver, asking the relevant minister to resolve the catastrophic traffic situation in the Dubrovnik area, burdened by heavy transit towards Montenegro and Albania.

In September, we did not record any workers’ actions. October, like September, did not bring new actions.

In November, we recorded a strike by foreign delivery workers following a series of physical attacks that occurred in Split. Several thousand health workers, members of the Together Union, went on strike. These are predominantly laboratory technicians, radiologists and ambulance drivers whose dissatisfaction culminated with the adoption of the already mentioned Regulation on coefficients. The strike ended on the fourth day after receiving the requested promises from the ministers of health and labour. We highlight as another interesting curiosity that the relevant minister was arrested the next morning on suspicion of involvement in a corruption scandal regarding the procurement of equipment in several hospitals. How this will affect the agreement reached remains to be seen in next year’s review.

We also note the outcome of an action that we missed at the end of last year: two workers, accompanied by a friend, broke into the employer’s house with the intention of forcibly collecting a debt. They inflicted serious injuries on the employer. They were provisionally sentenced to charity work, and the friend to two and a half years. The employer’s debt was not mentioned in the verdict.

Female footballers from Osijek went on strike demanding higher bonuses. December brings a strike by five hundred Croatian Post workers who gathered in Zagreb, organised by the Tiger Union, demanding higher wages, better working conditions and the payment of 1,200 euros to all operational workers, not just some as planned. After a month, the strike at NK Osijek was “resolved” by terminating the contracts of eight female players who were on strike.

Education and science unions protested in Ban Jelačić Square, asking the responsible minister for a greater increase in the base salary in the coming year, a revision of the Regulation on coefficients and the suspension of the evaluation system, which was announced to start on 1 January. The year closed, after the tragedy at Prečko Elementary School in Zagreb, with a march for a safe school organised by school unions.

Igor Livada

Jovica Loncar

Click here to subscribe to ESSF newsletters in English and or French.