The Redundancy Social Security Plan represents a specific measure which tries to remove or diminish the bad consequences from termination of employment, both for the employee and the community, in the case when a certain employer terminates a large number of contracts on employment in a very short period. Due to the fact that the latest Amendments to the Labor Act introduced substantial changes of the above stated institute, their application has created a number of dilemmas. In order to comply with the Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies, the goal of which is for the employees’ representatives to participate in the entire procedure of collective redundancies in all its phases and providing the active employment measures which should diminish or prevent the consequences of termination of employment. Accordingly, the provisions which have so far regulated the procedure of counselling on taking care of the redundant employees in accordance with the above stated Directive, have been changed.
A holiday (leave) is the period of duration of employment, during which an employee is relieved from the obligation to work (to spend at work), although he/she is otherwise obliged to be at work. The right of an employee to holiday represents one of the fundamental rights in labor relation, which is of a great importance to all the employees. Holidays can be grouped according to their occurrence and goals and can be categorized according to a number of criteria. However, the two most important categories are paid holidays (the holidays during the calendar year when an employee is relieved from the obligation to work and receives his/her salary) and unpaid holidays (an employee does not have the right to such a holiday, but may be requested and obtained by an employer). Both categories have as a rule the same purpose: to deal with some private issues or to achieve certain interests. Due to their importance, holidays have been determined by the corresponding regulations and the norms of the international legal enactments.
After the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union, the system of social security was complied with the EU Directives, according to which there are greater possibilities to employ insured persons, who have signed the contract on employment with the employer in Croatia, in order to perform business activities for the contracting employer with the headquarters in some other EU member country. The author of the article explains the above stated issues based on the examples from practice.
The employer may terminate the contract on employment within the regulated or contracted notice period due to business circumstances or due to personal reasons. Both types of termination of employment represent a regular termination of employment, although they belong to different categories. In the case of the termination of employment due to business circumstances, such circumstances emerged on the employer’s side, whereas in the case of the termination of employment due to personal reasons, the new circumstances emerged on the employee’s side. The court practice has shown that there are no conditions for the termination of employment due to personal reasons in the case when there is a possibility for the employer to redeploy the employee to some other position where his/her permanent characteristics or abilities will not affect the regular performance of the working activities. The employer who has terminated the contract on employment due to business circumstances is not allowed to employ another employee for the same job.
The employment status may be terminated according to the decision of the competent court. At the beginning of this article the author defines the term of labor disputes and points to their determination by the Labour Act. The article then analyzes the sources of the procedure in such disputes and specifies the nature of the individual provisions in the Labour Act, the Act on Gender Equality and the Act on Prevention of Discrimination. The main part of the article deals with the certain issues regarding the general procedure of labour disputes, including the proceedings in the particular dispute – labour disputes at commercial courts, labour disputes of a low value, labour disputes regarding discrimination and disputes due to mobbing and sexual harassment. In the conclusion, the article provides the final instructions and certain projections de lege ferenda.
The author of the article analyzes the provisions of the new Act on Pension Insurance. The new Act has introduced the new categories of insured persons in the system of pension insurance, who are obliged to insure themselves on the basis of the generation solidarity. Some of the existing categories of insured persons have been determined more clearly, although they were previously included in the pension insurance system according to the special regulations. The Act also determines the new deadline for submission of the application for registration/deletion at the Croatian Institute for Pension Insurance. The Institute has lost some authorities. The Rulebook on Records of the Croatian Institute for Pension Insurance has introduced a new and simplified system of keeping the records of the Institute electronically.
The new Act on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons became effective on 1 January 2014, when the old Act of the same name became invalid. The author of the article states the persons who can be regarded as disabled persons or disabled persons who have the working ability, their rights to professional rehabilitation, the way of (self)-employing disabled persons, the specific labour rights and the precedence upon recruitment of such persons, the legal obligation to employ a certain quota of disabled persons, as well as benefits and subsidies which such persons and their employers may obtain according to the new Act.
The amendments to the Act on the Areas of Special State Care, which became effective on 1 January 2014, comprise the payment of the real estate tax upon the acquisition of the real estate in the areas of the special state care. This article presents some new issues regarding the real estate exemption in the areas of a special state care, i.e. real estate tax exemption for the beneficiaries of the housing care in the case when they have acquired the real estate owned by the Republic of Croatia. Such persons should already have the place of residence at the address of the real estate they want to acquire.
A copyright in the Republic of Croatia is regulated by the special Act on Copyright and Similar Rights. This Act was amended three times, the last amendment being in December, 2013. The author presents the new amendment to the Act, which has been announced by the Government of the Republic of Croatia.