On the occasion of April 27 – CATUS Day, a ceremonial session of the CATUS Council was organised in order to mark the 118th anniversary of our organisation.
Besides the members of Council, Statutory and Auditing Committees, presidents of trade union federations and regional trade union councils, the session was also attended by the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs of Serbia Darija Kisić Tepavčević, President of the Employers’ Association of Serbia Miloš Nenezić, Director of the Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labour Disputes of Serbia Ivica Lazović, Director of Labour Inspectorate and his substitute, Milan Cvetkov and Saša Perišić, Secretary of the Social and Economic Council of Serbia Dušan Petrović.
Among the guests there were also ILO Coordinator for Serbia, Jovan Protić, Country Program Director for Serbia at AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, Steven McCloud and former Country Program Director at AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, Laurie Clements.
In his speech CATUS President Ljubisav Orbović emphasized that it had been 118 years of efforts to protect workers’ rights, fight for higher salaries and better living standard of all workers and citizens of Serbia. The biggest question, as President Orbović pointed out, is whether employers would tell their employees to return to the office or estimate that they don’t need many workers, which accounts for significant savings. Will atypical forms of work spread around even more while full-time work becomes a rare exception?
Trade union fears are justified because of the way laws are passed. We witness an increasing number of fixed-term contracts, occasional and temporary jobs, precarious and platform work where employers are most of the time invisible. How is the trade union supposed to fight for the rights of workers on these jobs if they themselves don’t know who their employer is?
In the conclusion, Orbović explained that CATUS had always found the way to fight throughout all these years of its existence. He is also sure that CATUS has the capacity to respond to today’s challenges thanks to timely actions, unity, solidarity, and consistency.
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