Although it has just passed a public debate and the final text has not been formed yet, the Draft Law on Employment has attracted a lot of attention due to the increased volume of work in certain activities (hereinafter: the Draft Law).
According to estimates, more than half a million people are informally employed in Serbia, and apart from agriculture, most gray workers are in tourism, catering and construction. The Ministry of Labor and Employment, Veterans’ Affairs and Social Rights (hereinafter: Ministry) proposer of the law, states that the main goal is to suppress the gray economy in the way it was done by the Law on Seasonal Workers. Namely, the Ministry especially emphasizes the results achieved by this law. Before the beginning of its application, between 60 and 80 thousand seasonal workers in agriculture worked illegally, while today about 53 thousand workers are registered during the year through the established system. Not only is the labor law regime of seasonal workers regulated in this way, but the state has also generated additional income that is estimated at around five million euros.
Some of the solutions of Draft law
Therefore, on the wings of the mentioned success, the Ministry proposed this Draft Law which, in addition to agriculture, would be applied in the field of catering, construction, tourism, jobs related to home help and maintenance of residential buildings.
It is clear that the Draft Law focuses on those areas where there is a shortage of labor on the labor market, in order to enable employers to find a skilled workforce as easily as possible.
Hiring persons on the basis of Draft Law implies engagement outside the employment relationship, with a limited duration. Namely, the employment of a person cannot last longer than 15 days during one calendar month, except for agricultural work, home help and cleaning of residential buildings.
In addition, the limiting factor is that the Employer cannot hire a person in accordance with this Draft, if in the previous three months it terminated the employment contract of employees on the same jobs, based on redundancy in accordance with the law governing work.
On the other hand, what should certainly facilitate the work of employers is the solution according to which a foreigner who, in accordance with the current visa regime, does not need a visa to enter in Republic of Serbia, can be employed, without the obligation to obtain a work permit, while residing in the Republic of Serbia.
On the other hand…
However, not everyone reacted positively to the Draft law in question.
Namely, trade unions and some experts in labor law believe that the new regulation disenfranchises workers, prevents them from legal protection and allows the employment of foreigners without an employment contract. By adopting the Draft in question, in their opinion, the main branches of industry would be reduced to work outside employment. They especially emphasize that according to this Draft Law, workers do not have the right to limited working hours and overtime work, paid leave, as well as the right to recourse and severance pay.
In addition to the above, the unions especially point out that the mentioned draft law protects employers from court proceedings for labor exploitation, illegal termination of employment as well as other labor disputes, which introduces additional legal uncertainty for all workers. It is especially emphasized that in recent years it has been noticeable that the temporary employment of foreign workers leads to the creation of new forms of labor exploitation.
Therefore, the employee cannot go to court and initiate a labor dispute or sue for illegal dismissal.
Also, they point to the possibility of abuse of the Draft Law, given the impossibility of complete and efficient control of its implementation. Namely, according to the union, today one inspector checks several thousand companies and it is unlikely that they will be able to control whether employees work for the allowed 15 days as much as the law allows or for a whole month.
In addition, the unions believe that it creates unfair competition towards domestic workers by allowing the draft law to occasionally hire foreigners who do not need a visa to enter Serbia, and thus ignore the provisions of the Law on Employment of Foreigners.
On the other hand, the Employers defend the law by the fact that it refers only to the occasional employment of workers, and not to the full employment. They especially point out that the advantage of this system is that social assistance beneficiaries, unemployment benefits and retired persons do not lose the right to these benefits if they are hired in this way, which was one of the reasons why many seasonal workers want to work undeclared.
There is still time for Improvement
Participants in the public debate proposed some changes that primarily aim to further limit the possibility of abuse of the rights of the employer when hiring people in case of increased workload. In that regard, there is a proposal to prescribe the obligation of the employer to offer the employee a work contract if there is an open position for that job, and that the employee cannot be terminated and transferred to the subject system in a certain period of time.
The public debate is over, so it is expected that the proposer will take into account all the objections and finalize the Draft Law before it is then submitted to the parliamentary procedure for adoption.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. If you need additional information related to the subject or help with drafting a general act or taking long measures to protect business secrets, feel free to contact us by email office@ncrlawyers.com or by phone +381677049551.
