Draft law on employment through agencies sent back for correction

The draft law on employment through agencies in Serbia was returned for correction to the Ministry of Labor after the public discussion, as trade unions are not satisfied with the number of workers that the private and the public sectors may employ through agencies relative to the total number of employees.

Zoran Ristic, the adviser at the UGS Nezavisnost trade union told Beta that the union had been close to accepting the first draft, under which up to 10% of the total employees could be employed through agencies, but that the proposition had been changed considerably during the public discussion.

– During the public discussion, the limitation was liberalized and blew up to 50% – Ristic said.

The draft law, as he said, also stipulated that companies or institutions could employ 20-30% of the workforce through agencies, with the minister's approval, in extraordinary cases. The unions are not satisfied with this and are now requiring a more precise formulation.

Ristic said that the unions now also demanded for the requests and the explanations for an increase in the number of workers hired through agencies to be rated by the union as well, and not just by the competent minister.

The unions, he said, are waiting for an invitation of the competent ministry in order for the law to be adapted to the requests together with the working group, after which the draft law would be discussed at the Social-Economic Council.

According to Ristic, UGS Nezavisnost also asked for the agencies to have banking guarantees or a guarantee of a job well done, but the Ministry of Labor said that this was impossible, because that would mean that all employers should be subject to the same requirements.

Ristic said that the union had accepted the argument for the time being, and that additional securities would be sought through further amendments later on.

At the moment, as he said, the most important thing is to define clear limits to the number of people that can be employed through agencies and to have the basic salaries for workers in identical job positions, whether employed through an agency or employed in the private or the public sector, to be the same, whereby bonuses can be different.

– The equalization of salaries will considerably reduce agencies' earnings and I believe that it will eliminate those that never intended to do the job seriously – Ristic said.

Employers' motive for employing as many people through agencies as possible is to extract the maximum possible profit, as employees hired that way avoid taking sick leaves, over-apply themselves for fear of being fired, while being paid less than their colleagues who are hired by companies through job contests.

That is why, in Serbia, as he said, even multinational companies have up to 50% workers hired through agencies.

The workers employed under the current Law on Employment through Agencies can organize in unions to address their issues, according to Ristic, as it is not forbidden, but they have rarely done so.

– I know of only one example of a union organizing within an agency, as this is not easy to do due to massive fluctuations – Ristic said.

Ministarstvo za rad, zapošljavanje, boračka i socijalna pitanja Republike Srbije

UGS Nezavisnost Beograd

Draft Law on Employment through Agencies in Serbia

Law on Employment through Agencies in Serbia

Zoran Ristic

employment through agencies in Serbia