CROATIAN LABOUR MARKET DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES IN THE CONTEXT OF FLEXICURITY

Already in the period of accession negotiations for entry into the European Union the Republic of Croatia began a wide reform of labour and social security legislation with the aim of its harmonisation with Acquis Communitaire. This was a period in which the Croatian labour market was marked by a large rate of unemployment, segmentation, underdevelopment, low rate of workforce mobility, horizontal and vertical gender segregation and also, by strict employment protection legislation, weak functioning of labour market institutions and poorly developed social dialogue. Exit from such a situation was attempted to be found in flexicurity, a concept which the European Commission strongly promoted. Its implementation is achieved through flexible and reliable contractual arrangements and work organisations, an active labour market policy, a system of reliable lifelong learning and a modern system of social security together with impetrative productive social dialogue. This increased flexibility in employment relations, necessary for employers to achieve and maintain market competiveness, at the same time, represents decreasing job security for workers. Within the concept of flexicurity it would be replaced by increasing employability of workers by developing their professional skills in the framework of the lifelong learning system which enable them greater labour market competiveness. Furthermore, with measures of active labour market policy, this, apart from promoting employment, supports workers in the transition between two jobs. Workers who have lost their jobs as a result of numerical flexibility achieve income security through unemployment benefits within a system of social security. In order to understand flexibility and security in employment relations in the Republic of Croatia, the authors have observed the mutual interplay of flexicurity elements in the labour market and the extent to which reforms in legislation, politics and institutional framework have influenced their implementation. After an analysis of the solutions de lege lata by which flexibility-security nexus is attempted to be established, the authors provide suggestions de lege ferenda for a more successful implementation of flexicurity policy on the Croatian labour market.