Foreign workers have become an indispensable part of our city’s daily life. They renovate our hospitals, hand us our change in the shops and bring us coffee. But perhaps their most visible presence is that of delivery couriers with their green, yellow and blue bags, delivering food, home necessities or even laundry.
Just ten years ago colourful delivery bags were nowhere to be seen on our city’s streets. Digital platforms entered the Croatian market in 2018, promising easy money and flexible working hours. Workers – referred to by the platforms as “partners” – were promised autonomy and freedom to work as much as they want, when they want. At the time, this flexibility “dream” came true for a mostly Croatian workforce.
When digital platforms first entered the market, they offered better conditions (higher pay, bonuses) to draw in both workers and customers. But despite the big promises, workers quickly discovered the problems of platform work: undeclared or overtime work beyond contracted hours, lack of protection, denial of workers’ rights, and the shifting of responsibilities (such as vehicle insurance) onto the worker. The myth of flexibility has always been just that – a myth. The workers are often required to be logged into the delivery app at specific times, usually during peak demand periods.
Labour unions have also been warning about the way these platforms operate, since their method is the same in all the countries where they have been active for years. Critics point out that platforms are increasingly more reliant on subcontractors. Workers are outsourced through various intermediaries, which allows platforms to increase distance between themselves and the workers, which shields them from taking on any kind of commitment as employers.
“Digital platforms have adopted, tested and fine-tuned practices of constant surveillance, capricious management, unpredictable scheduling and opaque discipline”, says the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
The couriers risk their own health, too. They spend countless hours on the road, in traffic, in all kinds of weather conditions, on bicycles, mopeds, scooters, or in cars – just to do their jobs. During the pandemic, in 2020, being a delivery courier was one of the rare job opportunities available for the many of our fellow citizens who were unemployed. At the same time, they turned out to be essential workers, as they delivered food, medicine and all other supplies.
In Croatia, things have always been “arranged” so that digital platform workers, primarily delivery couriers, are either “self-employed” (through a company or a sole proprietorship, usually subject to lump sum taxation) or employed through an aggregator (an “intermediary” between the platform and the workers that is the official employer of the worker and takes a percentage of earnings). Down the line, some platforms have made direct employment possible for couriers, but the exact number of such positions remains unclear.
Workers united in the initiative ReWolt have organised protests to highlight the issues with aggregators (or alligators, as the workers call them), calling for their abolition. Aggregators operate in a grey area: they take cuts from the couriers’ earnings, but don’t assume the responsibilities that an employer should have. The workers have no protections and are left to fend for themselves. Not only do they have to pay the platforms and the aggregators, but they also cover the costs of their own delivery vehicles (of whichever type) and fuel, as ReWolt points out.
Yet there’s many alligators in this story. And they all take their cuts from the profits.
The situation in the labour market drastically changed in 2021, leading to further confusion. That was the year when Croatia abolished quotas for issuing work permits and liberalised the system. Now, there are no restrictions on importing foreign workers for occupations in high demand. In other cases the Croatian Employment Services (HZZ) conduct a labour market test to check if there is sufficient domestic workforce. In case there isn’t, employers can bring in foreign workers.
For years, foreign workers would come to Croatia mostly from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. But this has changed. In 2024, a total of 206529 permits to reside and work were issued, mostly to workers from Bosnia, followed by those from Nepal, Serbia, India and the Philippines. In the first three months of 2025 alone, 53662 permits to reside and work were issued, most of them to workers from Nepal.
We can see that everyone profits from foreign workers – the platforms fill their job posts, employers find cheap labour (often coerced into working), and landlords find their tenants. Yet it seems that the agencies and aggregators are benefitting the most
It is not uncommon for the workers to pay between 7500 and 10000€ to come to Croatia. These amounts can go up as the number of intermediaries between workers and employers increases, which also further complicates the situation. In some cases, entire families go into debt to cover the high costs of coming to Croatia. Once the workers arrive, alongside their own living expenses, they have to cover the loan payments from back home and send money to their families. Their working hours usually exceed the 40hours per week stipulated by the Labour Act. Workers report working up to six days a week with shifts lasting eight, ten, or even twelve hours a day. The couriers are often “incentivised” with bonuses for completing a certain number of deliveries, so they can earn some extra money on top of the minimum wage they receive in accordance with their contracts. The average monthly gross pay of a courier in 2024 was 865.40€.
In addition to exploitation, there is increasing backlash against foreign workers. We often hear that “foreign workers lowered the price of labour”. This reflects the attitude of some members of the local population, but the reality is that it’s not the foreign workers who are driving down wages –it’s the employers who are taking advantage of the situation. Foreign workers are filling in job positions with a long-standing shortage of workforce caused by the emigration of domestic workers.
Data shows that, incredibly, the number of workers who receive minimum wage has gone up. For example, in October2014, during an economic crisis, about 30000 people worked for a salary equal to or lower than the minimum wage. Today, there is a staggering number of 250000 workers receiving the minimum wage. In ten years, the number of workers receiving the minimum wage has increased eightfold!
Foreign workers are often brought up when talking about the rising rental prices, but the prices don’t go up because of foreign workers, but because of landlords exploiting the circumstances. As housing gets too expensive for the majority of the population, foreign workers are often forced to live in inhumane conditions.
The Ombudswoman of the Republic of Croatia also highlighted the problems the foreign workers are facing in her Annual report for 2024. Workers have expressed complaints about working without a permit to reside and work, not receiving the salary specified in their contracts or the salary promised during recruitment, and being paid partially in cash “under the table”. They also reported illegal overtime work, being denied the right to a rest period, failure to report injuries at work, working without an employment contract and unlawful termination of contract.
There has been a growing number of attacks on foreigners, especially foreign workers. According to data from the Croatian Ministry of the Interior, cited in the Ombudswoman’s report, 326 offences against foreigners were reported in the Republic of Croatia between 1January to 31July2024, with a total of 527 victims. The report notes a rise in criminal offences such as threats, endangerment of life or property through an action or means generally considered as dangerous, aggravated theft, robbery, and aggressive behaviour.
One of the most shocking incidents took place in Split at the end of 2024, when foreign workers were victims of several stone-throwing attacks. Despite fearing for their lives, they had to continue working. Some of them came together and organised a kind of silent strike during the weekend when the attacks occurred, since they were dreading what could happen to them as they are – due to the nature of their work – alone, on a bicycle or a scooter, which makes them an easy target. In addition to such violence, it is not uncommon for the workers to have the food stolen, or to be threatened and robbed.
As so many are turning a profit, our fellow citizens are being fed the false dichotomy of “us and them”. The way we treat ourselves reflects the way we treat them. On the other side of the mirror there are people who have come to Croatia in search of a better life.