Zero-quota for new foreign workers angers some Croat entrepreneurs

© Michelangelo-36 / Wikimedia

11.
Croatian government has set a "zero-quota" for new working permits for foreigners this year to the dismay of some business owners that depend on a foreign workforce. Massage salon owner Marjan Turkalj says that a large project with Dubrovnik hotels fell through because he could not hire any more Thai masseuses. Dario Tomic, an owner of an Arabic restaurant in Zagreb, says his business depends on a cook that knows how to prepare these dishes. For the first time this year the Croatian government has brought down the quota of new work permits for foreigners to zero due to the high unemployment rate. It has allowed the renewal of 5,300 permits for those who have had them for the past few years. But entrepreneurs like Turkalj and Tomic complain that few of Croatia’s 300,000 unemployed have the skills that they need. "We can learn the techniques of Thai massage, but that will never be the same as if a Thai woman performs them. Her elbow and knee are not the same width as mine, and she with her 40-something kilograms can massage by walking on a person’s back, which I cannot … In short, I must hire Thai women. But this year, I cannot," complains Turkalj. Tomic managed to find a cook from Morrocco who is married to a Croatian woman and has a work permit. He says that his employee not only does not threaten a Croatian looking for a job, but creates 10 other positions. "People come to me because of an Arab cook. If I do not have him – they do not come. And if they come, then I can hire a cook’s assistant and waiters," says Tomic. According to the World Economic Forum’s competitveness in tourism scale, Croatia is in 38th place out of 139 countries. However when just the ease (or difficulty) of hiring a foreign worker is taken into consideration, Croatia falls down to 128th spot, the daily Jutarnji List writes.