Employers get more benefit from minimum wage than employees

Not only workers and their rights but also bind employers are protected by laws in Serbia. Nevertheless, protective work gear and properly secured workplaces are not available for many of these workers today. 42 workers died at work last year. This year six workers died and four people got serious injuries with a fatal outcome from January to March.
Ljubisav Orbović, president of the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia, finds these figures unacceptable. He also adds that the unions asked the state to increase relevant inspection supervision.
Orbović points out that the authorities complained about the lack of inspectors to carry out such frequent inspections. The most problematic sector is the construction.
According to him, redundancies are not that frequent in Serbia due to the workforce deficit.
Serbia has nothing against foreign employers coming to the country because Serbian workers also go abroad as they pay higher wages. But the fact that foreign companies come and lower the price of the work is not acceptable. Such workers find themselves into the background in the labour market and often work without documents, unfortunately.
Concerning negotiating the adjustment of the minimum wage twice a year, Orbović says that there will certainly be negotiations this year as well, but that “they are not a decisive factor for determining the minimum labour price”.
He also adds that adjusting the minimum wage twice a year is a matter of inflation. Adjusting the minimum wage once a year is sufficient, in case if the inflation is within normal limits.
According to Orbović, employers get the opportunity to plan their businesses with the view of having cheap labour at their disposal due to the minimum wage. He adds that the minimum wage corresponds to the minimum consumer basket in Europe, but here that is not the case.

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