Agreements with Slovenia and Germany Guarantee Equality for Serbian Workers

Serbian worker who temporarily works in Germany and Slovenia has the same rights as a local worker thanks to the agreements that Serbia made with those countries. This entails that posted workers go to those countries through the National Employment Service, not through mediating agencies which offer big promises but do not keep them.

Conference on posted workers was held on June 11 within the Project – Fair European Labour Mobility – “FELM2” (more information may be found at: sindikat.rs/savetovaliste/). Participants were, among others, the counsellors from the Counselling Network of Slovenia – Marko Tanasić, The Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, and counsellors from Fair Mobility Network from Germany – Šejla Vojić and Bojana Spalević.
Project FELM 2 is financially supported by the European Commission, within the EU Employment and Social Innovations Program – EaSI.

At the conference ‘Transnational cooperation aimed at larger support to mobile – posted workers, Serbia-Slovenia-Germany’, representatives of the two European Union countries emphasized that they didn’t steal our workers but hired the unemployed who are registered with the National Employment Agency.
They estimated that despite the increasing brain drain from Serbia, this is beneficial for everyone because Slovenia and Germany get workers they lack and our workers get higher salaries and better working conditions.
As it was pointed out, the aim is to provide equal rights for all workers, not to let them get tricked or exploited.
According to Duško Vuković, CATUS Vice-President, we are aware that Serbia is at the top of the list of countries from which people emigrate the most and consequently this reduces trade union membership. However, CATUS is ready to help and inform our workers so that after their temporary employment abroad they would come back to Serbia.
Vuković explained that Germany and Slovenia were the countries where our workers go to temporarily, respecting the conditions of the Law on Posting of Workers that Serbia passed in 2015. Serbia also signed agreements on social insurance with these two countries. These agreements provide for legal and social security, as well as easier administrative procedures.
Even though comprehensive agreements on social insurance have already been signed and include numerous rights that our workers can exercise while working in those countries, Jelena Nađ, representing the Ministry of Labour, stressed that work abroad needed to be additionally regulated and new agreements signed.
Director of the National Employment Agency of Slovenia, Greta Metka Barbo Škerbinc said that around 14,000 Serbian workers worked in Slovenia and had the same rights as local workers. She also stressed that the agreement on social insurance was an instrument to avoid mediators. What’s more, Slovenian Employment Agency checks credibility of employers seeking workers.
Counsellor for Labour and Social Affairs at the German Embassy in Serbia, Peer Krumrey, said that Germany considerably facilitated the entrance to the labour market for Serbian workers and guaranteed equal rights to all workers.