In June 2015, two working visits of project partners in Croatia and Montenegro were made within the »Tourism is People« project.
Their purpose was to hold a brief discussion on the current situation in the tourism and hospitality sector both in economic terms and in terms of functioning and existence of social dialogue.
Within the project, partners had committed themselves to drafting and filling out a questionnaire providing an overview of the situation in the tourism and hospitality sector in respective countries. Project partners had completed the questionnaire by April 2015 and thus providing a basis for the working visits to be made. Two visits by ZDS in Croatia and Montenegro were made in June 2015, two visits in Serbia and Macedonia, however, will be made in September and October 2015.
As far as the functioning of the social dialogue is concerned, it appears that Croatia and Montenegro are quite developed. The legislation has been adopted in both countries governing the work of trade union and employers’ organisations as well as conclusion and validity of collective agreements. Contrary to the Republic of Slovenia, where the collective agreement system is determined in a separate act. In Croatia and Montenegro, however, it is determined in the act governing labour relations.
In both countries, a representative trade union and a representative employers’ organisation have been set up and are operating in the tourism and hospitality sector. While there is no information available on employee representation by trade unions in the tourism and hospitality sector in Montenegro, in Croatia, on the other hand, such information is available (18%). As far as employer representation in the tourism and hospitality sector is concerned, the information is again available only in Croatia, namely 45%.
Another interesting piece of information refers to the conditions for representation both for trade union and employers’ organisations. In Montenegro, there is a representative trade union with the membership rate of 15% of all workers in the sector, whereas in Croatia the legislation requires that at least 50 000 workers are members of a trade union. Furthermore, there is a difference in establishing the representation rate of employers’ organisations – in Montenegro a representative employers’ organisation is the one whose members employ at least 25% of workers, whereas in Croatia a representative employers’ organisation should have at least 3000 members or the members should employ at least 100 000 workers in total.
In its report or in the questionnaire, Croatia highlights the development of the social dialogue both at the sector and company level. Most of the big hotel companies renew the collective agreements and hold negotiations at an annual level. In Montenegro, on the contrary, social dialogue in the tourism and hospitality industry is not very well developed, as the last collective agreement was concluded in 2011. The collective agreement for this sector needs to be adjusted to the general collective agreement for the private sector signed in 2014.
Both countries highlight the issue of undeclared work and the shortcomings in the system of vocational education as weaknesses of the tourism and hospitality sector. The employees lack communication skills, crucial for this industry, as well as culinary skills and knowledge about wine.
With financial support by the European Union.