Are the labour rights of foreign workers in Serbia respected?
Labour inspectors say that foreign workers in Serbia are mainly young people, most often unskilled or having up to a medium level of professional education, while undocumented workers are often beneficiaries of financial benefits, social welfare and other various state benefits.
In 2023, the Labour Inspectorate conducted 66,896 inspections mostly of undocumented workers whose number stood at 382,004. 6,315 of them did not have an adequate job contract and after the inspection, 3,855 of them concluded a job contract with their employees. In terms of the status of foreign workers, one in nine did not have a valid work permit.
This is also the reason why most of the undocumented workers were found in the construction, hospitality and food sectors, as well as in retail, transport and storage, production of textiles, leather and footwear, production of metals, machinery and other equipment, wood processing, agriculture and forestry. Most undocumented workers are in the construction sector.
“After inspection was carried out, those foreign nationals who were undocumented workers often refused to enter into a job contract but rather opted to return to their country of origin,” the Labor Inspectorate points out and adds: “During the inspections, labour inspectors have determined that out of the total number of foreign nationals, 11% of them did not have a work permit as their employers had failed to secure a permit prior to their work engagement, and 6% of them did not have an adequate job contract or social insurance.”
In practice, it seems easier for employers to return an employee to their home country than actually apply for a work permit, probably because in the absence of proper documentation, they come to Serbia as tourists and stay for work up to a maximum of 90 days, providing they don’t need a visa to come to our country, the Inspectorate adds.
Most foreign workers who did not have a valid work permit came from Turkey. Out of a total of 867 foreign nationals for whom employers have not provided work permits, 687 are citizens of the Republic of Turkey, 36 are citizens of China, 26 are citizens of India, 24 are from Cuba, 22 from Egypt and 15 from Uzbekistan. There were also the citizens of Ukraine, Nepal, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tajikistan, and even Italy and Poland.
On the other hand, the Turks are not the No. 1 workers in terms of numbers. In the first place are citizens of China – 5,952, followed by Turkey with 1,183 workers, Egypt with 256 workers, India with 145 and Tajikistan with 40.
Labour inspectors also inspected the work health and safety of foreign workers. They filed a total of 187 requests for the initiation of misdemeanour proceedings against employers and three criminal charges against responsible persons related to work health and safety.
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