Leoni recognizes all obligations towards employees

According to Leoni Serbia, the company has duly informed the public about its earlier announcement that they would gradually halt production at its branch in Malošište by the end of the year.

As Leoni stated, the contracts of the first group of employees terminated at the beginning of September under the conditions set out in the redundancy program.

Also, the company explained in their press release that the information appeared in the media was inaccurate or misleading, and highlighted that Leoni has, from its very first day of operations in Serbia, regularly met all obligations towards employees, including the payment of salaries, salary-related compensation, as well as taxes and contributions.

According to the company, on 18 July employees got the advice at the Malošište branch to check their employment records at the nearest PIO office and notify the HR department without delay in case of any technical error.

Leoni stated that most of employees followed the advice and the relevant services at the Malošište branch helped them resolve any uncertainties directly.

Also, the company pointed out that, under the Labour Law, they can grant severance pay only “for each completed year of employment with the employer”, and months beyond a full year are not included in this provision.

As they explained, the company will provide employees whose contracts are being terminated with severance pay for each full year of service in the amount of 50 percent of the average monthly wage (‘gross 1’) earned over the last three months. This payment exceeds the minimum severance pay prescribed by law by 50 percent.

According to Leoni’s further promises, they delivered severance pay to nearly 420 people following contract terminations at the Malošište branch in September. Meanwhile, less than one percent of workers (only four employees) lodged objections to how the severance pay was calculated.

Nevertheless, a further 1,500 people at the Malošište branch will have become unemployed by the year’s end. According to Leoni announcement made in July, loss-making operations were the reason of the closure of this branch.

The costs are also rising at the company’s other sites in Serbia – Prokuplje, Niš and Kraljevo. However, all these three factories have a clear goal of improving business operations and are working on their projects.

Currently, around 8,500 people are working for Leoni Serbia, but after the closure of the Malošište branch, the number of employees will fall to nearly 7,000.

The company started its business in Serbia in 2009.

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Minimum wage in Serbia will attain 551 euro as of Jan 1

As finance minister Sinisa Mali said on Tuesday, Serbia’s government declared an increase of the minimum monthly net wage by 10.1% to 64,554 dinars ($647/ 551 euro) as of January 1, unable to reach an agreement on the hike with both employers and unions.
Before that, there was a 9.4% extraordinary increase in minimum monthly wage, as for October 1. As Mali said in a press release, the government will formalize the decision on the increase on Thursday, after a meeting of the Social and Economic Council, composed of representatives of the government, employers and trade unions.
According to local media, neither employers nor unions liked the government’s proposal for the increase of the minimum monthly wage to 551 euro as of January 1, made during the negotiations that started last month. Employers claimed to be overburdened with expenses and insisted on the minimum wage set at 500 euro, while unions highlighted rising electricity and food prices, as well as overall inflation acceleration and wanted the minimum wage to increase to 70,000 dinars. As the Beta news agency reported, both sides stuck to their positions during the Tuesday meeting.
Nevertheless, as Mali noted on Tuesday, the government will increase the non-taxable portion of minimum wages by 20.4% to 34,221 dinars to partly meet the demands of the employers. She also added that nearly 90,000 people work for minimum wage in Serbia.
There is a typical increase of monthly minimum wages in Serbia each January. However, the rising dissatisfaction over rising food prices as well as months-old anti-government protests that the collapse of the canopy at the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1 with 16 victims had triggered, made the government resort to the October hike. Also, President Aleksandar Vucic announced last month a set of measures aimed at boosting citizens’ purchasing power and standards of living, including capping retailers’ profit margins and offering lower interest rates on consumer loans, to address this discontent.
The most recent data available from the trade ministry reported that the minimum consumer basket in Serbia cost 55,870 dinars in May. The acceleration of the country’s annual consumer price inflation between June and July was 0.3%.
According to the statistical office, out of the Serbian population of around 6.59 million, about 2.37 million persons were employed in the second quarter of 2025.
Previously, there was a 13.7% increase of the minimum monthly net wage in Serbia in January.

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