Recently we learnt that more than a hundred Indian citizens working temporarily in Serbia were unlawfully exploited although employed at the state-monitored infrastructural projects. Their work contracts were of poor quality and according to the experts, even contrary to the law. The most notorious case is the one concerning Indian workers hired by the company “Nikic d.o.o.” of Kraljevo, who turned to ASTRA, a non-governmental organisation specialised in combtting human trafficking and asked for assistance for protection of their rights. ASTRA confirmed the news that Indian workers have been building the new railway line between Belgrade and Budapest, as well as at the Corridor 11 (the highway linking Central Europe with Greece and Turkey), work conditions at the construction sites were bad, the employer failed to pay their wages and often fined them contrary to the law.
The end of the story has been rather sad, as the main part of workers flew back to India and 15 who decided to stay will be given 100 euros before leave – nothing compared to 360 dollars a month plus extra hours, promised before signing the contracts. It’s obvious that we are in the presence of a classic fraud: knowing that work standards and wages were much lower in India than in Serbia, workers lacked information concerning their rights and were already accustomed to be deprived of them in their homeland – the employer consciously decided to rob them. Highly suspicious excuses (“the payment delay of business partners indebted to us made us postpone the payment of wages”) cannot be taken seriously. The scandalous behavior of Serbian state authorities, which closed their eyes before a flagrant violation of domestic regulation at one of their own construction sites, cannot be justified either.
The unions are enraged. They supported the strike initiated spontaneously by a considerable group of workers and are now demanding a compensation for those who suffered losses because of the violation of their contracts. A far tougher reaction of the Government is required, they say, and demand the companies like “Nikolic d.o.o.” be banned from participating in public procurement tenders. At the same time, it’s high time the unions started organizing migrant workers, who choose Serbia for their temporary destination – in spite of its 430 euro average wage.