Seasonal work – Report with results of the research on seasonal work published

The Report brings an overview of the main findings of the research on the experience of seasonal work. The research was conducted in May and June 2021 within the “Work Fit for People” project, financed by the European Social Fund. The principal investigator and coordinator of the project’s research element is Teo Matković, PhD (ISRZ). Besides him, the members of the research team are Sunčica Brnardić (Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia), Katarina Jaklin (ISRZ) and Jelena Ostojić (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb).

Besides providing an overview of available administrative data on seasonal work and the normative framework, the Report is focused on the aspects of working conditions significantly shaping the experiences of seasonal work, such as: salary, working hours, intensity of work, as well as breach of contract regulations. Besides the listed aspects of working conditions concerning all seasonal workers in tourism, both men and women, the questions of accommodation, transport to workplace and meals were also analyzed. These aspects specifically concern the workers that work seasonally outside of their place of residence and thus migrate, either internally or externally, for the purpose of seasonal employment. The results suggest that seasonal work is, according to all aspects, often a very low quality work, either in the sense of the quality of working hours, salary, health protection or safety of employment. With the aim of improving the working conditions and providing a better regulation of seasonal work, and based on the presented legal analysis of seasonal work and the research itself, in the end the authors provide recommendations. The research was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Institute for Social Research.

The Report is available at the link. (in Croatian)