Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

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Legislation. The Committee takes note with interest the information provided in the Government’s report that, by virtue of the Act on Amendments of 2022 to the Labour Act (Official Gazette No. 151/22): (1) article 90 of the Labour Act was amended to define the term “remuneration”, which includes the basic or contracted salaries, supplements and other receipts paid in cash or in kind; (2) article 92(3) of the Labour Act further determines the definition of equal work, by indicating that work of equal “value”, is performed by two persons of different sexes if the work performed by one of them is of equal “value” to the work performed by the other, taking into account the qualification obtained at a certain level of education and the nature of the work determined according to objective criteria such as knowledge, skills, responsibility and independence required, as well as the conditions in which the work is performed; and (3) article 91(6) of the Labour Act also establishes the obligation of the employer to deliver data on wages and the criteria to determine them for equal work or work of equal value. In this regard, the Committee observes that, the European Directive 2023/970 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms sets out the right of workers to receive information on their pay level and the average pay levels for categories of workers performing the same work as them or work of equal ‘‘value” to theirs. The Committee welcomes the efforts of the Government and asks it to provide more information on the application, in practice, of the obligation established in Article 92 of the Labour Act.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value in law and practice. Public sector. Regarding the lack of a provision that expressly foresees the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal “value” between men and women in articles 10 and 11 of the Civil Servants Act, the Government indicates that: (1) according to article 4 of the same act, general labour regulations are applied in matters not governed therein, thus meaning that the principle foreseen in article 91 of the Labour Act, which the Committee considered in conformity with the Convention, applies to civil servants; (2) article 11 of the Civil Servants Act addresses equal treatment to civil servants regardless of their sex; and (3) the application of articles 10 and 11 of the Civil Servants Act is supervised through the administration inspection (ex officio and upon request). As regards information on complaints for discrimination in remuneration, the Government informs that all the reports from the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality are published periodically by this independent institution, and that although the Supreme Court publishes some rulings, they are not systematically categorized. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on: (i) cases where sections 10 and 11 of the Civil Service Act have been applied to address pay differences between men and women; and (ii) any sanctions imposed, and remedies granted.

National policy and gender pay gap. The Government refers to the draft National Plan for Gender Equality 2022-2027 and its corresponding Action Plan 2022–24, which the Committee notes were adopted in March 2023. As regards the gender pay gap, the Committee observes that: (1) the Government points to 2021 Eurostat data, which shows that the gender pay gap remained generally steady from 2019 (11.5 per cent) to 2021 (11.1 per cent); (2) according to the National Plan for Gender Equality 2022-2027, in December 2022 women’s average monthly net salaries were lower than men’s in 17 areas of activity, and salary difference were especially visible in industries where women predominate, amounting up to 34.8 per cent in the clothing production sector; and 83) in its 2022 National Report on the implementation of the European Social Charter, the Government indicated that it aims to reduce the gender pay gap between men and women to 7 per cent by 2027. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the measures adopted in the framework of the National Plan for Gender Equality 2022–27 and its corresponding Action Plan 2022-2024 to reduce the root causes of the gender pay gap and the results achieved.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. The Committee takes note that the Government: (1) reiterates its reference to the system of coefficients of the complexity of work, indicating that the principle of equal pay is directly applicable to the civil servants; and (2) explains that a draft Act on Wages in the State and Public Service is being prepared, to introduce a new system of pay grades to reduce the total of 3,000 different jobs with different coefficients to a little less than 600 and create an effective and fair system, which will regulate and harmonize allowances. The Government states further that the Action Plan for Gender Equality foresees the provision of guidelines to all companies, with a majority of State-owned shares, so that they revise their remuneration systems in a gender-neutral way and increase wage transparency, which they can do through the Gender Equality Plans they are obliged to adopt under the Gender Equality Act. The Committee asks the Government, to provide information on: (i) any progress on the elaboration and adoption of the draft Act on Wages in the State and Public service, and the establishment of a new system of pay grades; (ii) the number of companies who have adopted Gender Equality Plans and revised their remuneration systems; and (iii) any measures adopted under the Action Plan for Gender Equality to promote the design and use of objective job evaluation methods that are free from gender bias in the private sector.

Awareness-raising and enforcement. The Government indicates that: (1) it organized a high-level conference in 2020 with the primary goal of promoting women’s participation in the labour market and with a special emphasis on actions aiming at identifying and removing obstacles to increasing their activity; (2) several brochures and publications were issued on a wide range of topics related to gender equality during the period covered by the report; and (3) the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality published the “Guidelines of the national legislative framework for equal wages and pensions in the Republic of Croatia”. Regarding the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality, the Government also points out to the impossibility of providing information on the number of complaints filed and the outcomes of legal proceedings regarding the principle of the Convention because, as an independent institution that collects data within the field of its work and is responsible for its work to the Croatian parliament, the Government of the Republic of Croatia has no authority nor obligation to collect data from an independent body. The Government however indicates that: (1) the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality submits annual reports which include information on cases before Croatian courts, but this relates only to the cases in which has joined the process of plaintiff before competent courts; and (2) courts in Croatia do not have an obligation to publish their verdicts and there is no systematic categorization of decisions. The Committee recalls that an important aspect of monitoring the implementation is the collection and analysis of statistics (see 2012 General Survey on fundamental Conventions, paragraph 869). It further recalls that the Labour Inspectorate is also responsible for the effective application of the legislation related to the principle of the Convention. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on: (i) any awareness-raising activities that specifically address the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal “value”, as well as information on their impact (for instance, the number of participants); (ii) any training undertaken to increase the capacity of labour inspectors and other officials to detect violations of the principle enshrined in the Convention; and (iii) whether there are any measures foreseen to collect information on the number of violations detected and complaints filed before labour inspectors and other authorities.