Corporate Social Responsibility
Responsibility to the government and to the community
Croatia Airlines as the national air carrier has a huge social responsibility not only because of its duty to connect all parts of the country by air, either by domestic or international routes, but also because it plays an important role in the development of tourism in Croatia. The development of tourism is supported by the company through a network of direct flights to Zagreb as a capital of Croatia as well as to the destinations on the Adriatic, offered in cooperation with partner air carriers and by harmonizing flight schedules with other forms of transport, wherever it is possible.Passengers are served Croatian wine and food during flights, while they are also introduced to the natural beauties, historical monuments and cultural events of Croatia by means of the Inflight Magazine and the video system. The company's films on the beauty of our ecologically clean and unspoilt islands, the sea bed, coast, national parks and other parts of Croatia are daily featured on the company flight network of the Airbus aircraft. There are also films which raise awareness on the need to protect distinctive and endangered species: the film promoting the good dolphins project in the local waters of Cres and Lošinj, the film on the Lipizzaner horses of the Đakovo horse-stud and the film on Čigoč, the village of storks. Many cultural events which have contributed to the development of Croatian tourism are also promoted and sponsored (the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Split Festival, Motovun Film Festival, Histria Festival...) and institutions (Tourism Institute, the Croatian National Theatres in Zagreb and Split, the Visiting Theatre). The company also sponsors different sports and maintains a continuous cooperation with the Croatian Olympic Committee. Since its beginnings, Croatia Airlines has been providing humanitarian assistance – it offers free transport to seriously ill persons, children and people in distress, and participates in charity actions by providing free or privileged transport and use of the video-system and Inflight Magazine services. Also, for a number of years the company, instead of organizing Christmas parties for its business partners, has given money for purchasing medical instruments for paediatric hospitals in Croatia.
Responsibility to the Employees
Croatia Airlines was established in conditions of insufficient human resources and has therefore, in line with its rapid development, strengthened the human potential together with its technological advance, since aviation is an intensive industry in terms of both capital and labour.
The company started out with just over a hundred employees, mostly operative staff, with a minimum number of executives – who were enthusiasts – and with rented aircraft that were equipped with old technology. During its intense growth stage, the company has been modernized, with a fleet of seven A319/320 aircraft (plus additional rented airplanes due to increased needs for tourist transport) and three ATR42 aircraft, while the human resources have grown to the optimal employment level of about 1000 people in 2004.
Throughout the period, Croatia Airlines has become the country’s largest employer and largest training centre in the field of air transport, as well as an important Croatian company. All this has resulted in an "average youth" for the company of 36.5 years (2004) and an enthusiastic spirit and creative atmosphere, which have allowed its advance despite the highly challenging circumstances of its development path, the environment, and the biggest crisis for civil air transport in history.
Fifty percent of employees have associate or university qualifications and about the same number have high school qualifications, while many of them acquire additional skills and specialist aviation certificates. The greater part of resources is invested in specialist training and in the maintenance of readiness of cockpit/cabin crew, particularly the pilots. They are all trained in accordance with the highest world standards in the Lufthansa training centres, as are the engineers and air mechanics, who undergo regular specializations at Lufthansa Technic. Different specialist aviation skills are regularly acquired at the training centres of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and a large part of these and other skills, as well as managerial ones, are learned at the company's internal training centre, which annually organizes over 100 different training programmes. Croatia Airlines also maintains a tradition of organizing, with IATA's authorization, the training and certification for the sale of air tickets and transport of goods for bodies outside the company (individuals, travel agencies, freight carriers, shipping agents, airports) in the entire region of Croatia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Thanks to 170 different types of training per year which it organizes for its employees on both internal and external levels, Croatia Airlines has a significant social role and responsibility in the employment, education and guidance of young people all over Croatia. The company is aware of the significance of human resources in achieving its mission and for its international operations in collaboration with airline partners. It therefore pays particular attention to compliance with international air regulations and recommendations, and to Croatian legal and professional rules within its overall business operations, especially with respect to employees. The company's employees are employed on a permanent basis, while temporary employees are partly cabin crew engaged to meet increased needs in the summer season. As they are fully trained after their professional selection, the best among them are invited again in the next summer season, which opens the possibility for permanent employment in the conditions of a growing market.
In addition to the regular salary and other payments prescribed by the law, the company also has given other valuable benefits to the employees: - employees' salary is raising by certain percentage for every year of service in the company; - insurance from occupational accidents is paid for all employees; - jubilee awards for loyalty to the company, - Christmas bonus, - different types of transport to and from work are provided (defrayment of the cost of using public transport, organization of company transport, facilitating the use of company transport).
The company's trade union activity is exceptionally strong, and the employer's relations with the four leading trade unions – the Croatian Trade Union of Air Traffic Pilots, the Trade Union of Engineers and Technicians in Aviation, the Independent Professional Trade Union of Air Mechanics of Croatia and the Air Cabin Staff Trade Union – are regulated by collective contracts. The fifth, the Transport and Communications Trade Union, has not yet concluded such a contract. Collective contracts regulate all major issues regarding relations between the employer and the employees, such as income, working hours, annual vacations and other matters considered significant by both parties. The employer provides all the trade unions with premises, office supplies and the option of using means of communication. Intense negotiations have also resulted in a mutually accepted provision which has been entered into the collective contracts, stipulating that the contracting parties are to uphold the following principles: - mutual cooperation in the field of work relations; - social partnership and collective negotiating; and - amicable resolution of disputes. At the end of 2004, 50 percent of the total number of the company's employees were women, the majority of whom are employed in non-operative posts (accounting, finance, payroll accounts, legal, personal, marketing and other administrative operations), and they also made up the majority of cabin staff in operative posts. In line with legal obligations and recommendations, the company has developed the procedure for receiving and resolving complaints concerning violation of dignity of employees as well as an Ethics Code and set a committee which monitors its implementation, with the aim of affirming moral standards and ethical behaviour in business operations.