Together with Workers’ Front MP Katarina Peović, we warned on Friday that Podravka workers are working for miserable wages, barely above the minimum wage, while Martina Dalić and other Board members receive salaries between 15 and 20 thousand euros.
“While workers toil for slightly more than the minimum wage, we all know that managers there have enormous salaries,” Peović said at a press conference in the Croatian Parliament, asserting that Dalić is “manipulating” because they increased wages before the minimum wage hike, which by law occurs in October of each year.
She stated that this is not a real wage increase and that it is a “shame” that the representative unions remain silent and do not demand a significant pay rise.
According to the Member of Parliament, the fact that some workers attempted to misappropriate 12 packets of Vegeta says enough about “the famous worker satisfaction that Dalić boasts about, because the damage Dalić causes and what she takes amounts to several trucks of Vegeta.”
“Martina Dalić should be ashamed of how little she pays those production workers; unfortunately, it is the workers who were fired after being caught trying to take 12 packets of Vegeta who feel the shame. They should not be ashamed; they should revolt against the slave-like conditions in which they are held and in which they work,” she pointed out.
Mario Iveković from Novi sindikat pointed out that things are not quite as Dalić attempts to portray them, although they are, he says, pleased that Podravka is performing well and opening new factories. However, he adds, the opening of new factories can go hand in hand with providing better wages to workers, rather than minimum ones.
Iveković noted that his union is not representative and that they are speaking out because workers are dissatisfied with the representative unions that do not demand pay rises. He described it as pitiful that Dalić proposes and increases wages while the unions simply sign whatever she prepares for them.
Martina Dalić speaks of five waves of wage increases, but that, Iveković emphasizes, needs to be stripped bare because the wage hikes for the lowest-paid workers brought only about 100 euros more into their pockets per month.
“The minimum wage in Croatia today is 840 euros, while the lowest-paid workers at Podravka have a gross salary of around 847 euros, plus, of course, those non-taxable bonuses, which we consider a disgrace for Podravka—a company with an annual profit of 300 to 400 million euros,” Iveković said.
He emphasized that they had proposed concrete measures to increase the total wage bill by 100 million HRK, but received only perfunctory responses.
“While managers receive between 10 and 20 thousand euros, workers are on the minimum wage,” Iveković warned, noting that now, through the representative unions, workers are formally agreeing to have low wages so that the company can grow.
He also pointed out that, as a primary measure, they proposed an immediate net increase of at least 400 euros for every worker, which he believes would not harm Podravka’s business operations but would allow workers to live a “semi-dignified” life.
The article was originally published on the portal Novosti 19. 1. 2024. under the title “P.S. You should be ashamed of your work“
