The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) said on Thursday it was unfair and incorrect to impose vaccination as an obligation on entrepreneurs and to use it as an eligibility criterion for job-keeping grants.

The association also called on the authorities to come up with a model that will encourage citizens to get vaccinated without imposing additional administrative obligations on entrepreneurs.

HUP also noted that entrepreneurs were trying hard to maintain their business and protect jobs.

Commenting on announcements about introducing vaccination as a criterion for job-retention grants, HUP stressed that “employers have no legal or other basis to force their workers to get vaccinated or even check whether they are vaccinated or not”.

“We are aware of the importance of immunising the nation to achieve the greatest possible protection of citizens and end the pandemic, but we call on the government to come up with a model that will encourage citizens to get vaccinated individually,” HUP said, adding that imposing the obligation on entrepreneurs would not help achieve the desired goal of increased vaccination rate but create a wave of discontent.

Labour and Pension System Minister Josip Aladrovic yesterday outlined to the social partners — unionists and employers — a draft model whereby employees for whom employers can expect job-keeping grants will be supposed to have Covid certificates.

Under the draft model, apart from the current criteria, an additional criterion, that is the number of certificates showing how many workers have been vaccinated, will be introduced for eligibility for grants.

To date, eligibility criteria have been the exposure of the sector to the corona crisis and a decline in revenues, and the new criterion would reinforce the responsible behaviour, Aladrovic said underscoring that over 1.5 million citizens have got vaccinated to date and thus have shown responsibility for their health and health of people in their vicinity.

Aladrovic said there was no need for fear of lay-offs because they would have preserved jobs and employers whose liquidity would be stronger, and at the technical level everything related to data processing would be done in accordance with the law.

He announced that another meeting would be held early next week after HUP and trade unions discuss the elements with their members.

The association called the Voice of Entrepreneurs (UGP) also on Thursday expressed strong opposition to making the allocation of job-retention grants conditional on the vaccination of workers.

It also insists that a share of vaccinated workers and employers in the private sector was higher than in the public sector.