New economy: Every seventh employee in Serbia does not have a permanent job
In Serbia, 14,5 percent of workers work under a fixed-term contract. This is as much as 4,6 percent more than the European Union average, according to Eurostat data for 2025
The average of workers who work under a fixed-term contract in to the European Union is 9,9 percent. Of the 35 European countries for which Eurostat collects data, only North Macedonia and the Netherlands have more temporary employees than Serbia, writes New Economy.
Last year, almost every seventh person in Serbia worker had a fixed-term contract that guarantees employees the same basic rights as those with an indefinite contract. Nevertheless, the contract permanently provides greater security to the workers, because the employer must legally have a foreseen and explained reason for dismissal.
Indefinite-term contracts are common in seasonal jobs, and outside of them they are usually concluded due to an increased volume of work or the need to finish a job within the stipulated time, says lawyer Milan Predojević for Nova Ekonomija.
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However, seasonal jobs cannot be the only reason for such a high share of temporary employees in Serbia. Croatia, which has a high demand for seasonal workers every year due to tourism, according to Eurostat data, has only 7,5 percent of temporary employees.
Another reason for such a high percentage of temporary employees is, according to New Economy interviewees, the fact that in Serbia since 2013 there has been a “public sector employment ban”, which is why state institutions resort to fixed-term contracts that are constantly renewed.
Employees have been waiting for permanent contracts for decades
Lawyer Olja Mirković Grulović says that in practice it happens that employees wait for fixed-term contracts for decades, while vacancies are rarely announced. “Competitions for hiring permanent employees are rarely announced and are often not aligned with the actual needs of the service. The biggest problem arises when the employer is the state, because permanent employment involves a series of procedures, obtaining consent, additional checks of candidates and the like,” she says.
He also adds that the systematization of jobs is not regularly updated, so the number of permanent jobs formally does not correspond to the real needs of the institutions.
Thus, at the beginning of 2020, the Government of Serbia approved the first wave of competitions for employment in education for an indefinite period of time for 5.000 education workers, and the priority was full-time employees who had worked for at least four or five years.
Željko Matić from the Forum of Belgrade High Schools says that educators are in a particularly precarious position, because they can lose their job after every summer vacation, and such insecurity also affects the private life of employees.
As Matić explains, it is more difficult for a worker who does not have a permanent contract to get a home loan or to plan long-term commitments, because every summer it is uncertain whether he will get a job in September. She added that every new hiring approval is useful, but that it would be even more important to abolish the restrictions that prevent schools from filling vacant positions for an indefinite period of time.
If employers want to keep workers, the first thing is to hire them for an indefinite period
Psychologist Sarita Bradaš says that job security is one of the key indicators of dignified work. “It is much better to have a satisfied employee, and a satisfied employee is not one who is insecure in that job. If employers want to keep their workers, the first thing they will do is hire them for an indefinite period,” she points out.
In the private sector, the situation is somewhat different, because the employment ban does not apply. The Labor Law stipulates that a fixed-term employment relationship with or without interruption cannot last longer than two years, that is, 24 months. After that period, the employer is obliged to offer the employee an indefinite contract or to terminate the employment relationship.
Lawyer Milan Predojević explains that there are several exceptions when a fixed-term contract can last longer than two years. The first case is when one employee replaces another temporarily absent employee and then the contract is concluded until his return to work. Another exception is work on a project whose duration is determined in advance. Another exception applies to an unemployed person who has no more than five years to meet the requirements for a pension, and then the contract is concluded until those conditions are met.
With fixed-term contracts, employers secure themselves because they leave the possibility to change workers more easily, if they no longer need them.
“With us, such a practice has become established and is slowly being eradicated,” concludes Predojević.
For the sake of comparison, Romania has the lowest percentage of temporary employees in the region – 1,6 percent, which is almost the lowest percentage in all of Europe.
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