Industrial relations concern collective bargaining and strikes; relations between trade unions, government and employers (tripartite social dialogue); labour and social legislation; various systems for filing complaints and resolving individual and collective disputes; etc.
Industrial relations systems differ significantly between European countries, depending on their historical development, the strength of trade unions and employer associations and the state’s approach to labour market regulation.
In Croatia, slightly more than 20 per cent of workers are unionised while around 580 valid collective agreements regulate the labour rights of about 670 thousand workers, some 46 per cent of all those in employment.
Although these data correspond to the European average and are significantly higher than in most other new member states of the EU, there is no collective bargaining system in Croatia. This means that the collective bargaining processes that take place every year in a large number of employers are predominantly not coordinated in terms of their content or their timing. This makes it difficult for trade unions to raise wages and other workers’ rights, and it limits the positive effect of collective bargaining on society as a whole.
Organised collective bargaining systems, in contrast, contribute to macroeconomic stability and sustainable development, enabling at one and the same time the flexibility necessary for employers and the delivery of quality jobs, decent wages and good standards of worker protection.

Branch agreements should then be supplemented by collective agreements at the level of individual employers, containing provisions on the particularities of work organisation at that level and greater rights for workers working for employers that are doing well.
Discussions and the agreements of our trade unions in this area, among other things, fall within the scope of the UATUC Collective Bargaining Coordinating Committee.
We engage continuously in discussion with the government and employers in this area, proposing specific and constructive solutions to problems. 
We expect the government to create a stimulating environment for collective bargaining through laws and public policies, as it is obliged to do according to the European Directive on adequate minimum wages under which Croatia is mandated to adopt and implement an action plan to promote collective bargaining.
We expect the employer associations to stop seeing themselves primarily as lobbying organisations and finally assume their share of the responsibility for regulating the labour market that, as a social partner, they should own. With this aim in mind, we signed in 2021 an agreement on the improvement of multi-sectoral and sectoral cooperation with the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP).
In the area of tripartite social dialogue, the UATUC advocates the broad involvement of trade unions in the design and implementation of public policies that affect labour and social issues and, in general, the quality of life and level of democracy in society. We believe that trade unions must be involved in decision-making not only on labour legislation and economic policies but also on the management of the pension, healthcare and education systems, as well as many other issues.
Tripartite social dialogue in Croatia takes place through the Economic and Social Council, and in its commissions and working groups, as well as via the inclusion of trade unions and employers in the latter, which prepare and supervise the implementation of certain public policies and regulations. Social dialogue also exists via trade union participation in a number of other bodies and committees established by the public authorities.
Dialogue at the level of the Economic and Social Council is based on the Agreement on the Establishment of the Economic and Social Council. In a formal sense, this has been well thought out but, in practice, it does not work as it should. The government frequently does not respect the Agreement. Furthermore, it does not include trade unions in certain important working groups and presents them with proposals for significant laws and strategies only after they have already been prepared. The work of the Economic and Social Council is often reduced to discussion for the sake of discussion, the conclusions of which do not fulfil its intended purpose as an advisory body of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

We are particularly committed to strengthening worker participation in the workplace, including through works councils and health and safety representatives. Without industrial democracy, the development of a truly democratic and participatory society is not possible.