• 2020-05-06

Labour Rights in Serbia During the Pandemic

In collaboration with the Local Democracy Centre (LDA) Knjaževac and the LDA Subotica, the Foundation Center for Democracy organised an Online Workshop for youths on the subject of labour rights, as a part of the project Regional Youth Compact for Europe. The following webinar was held on 5th May via Zoom platform: Labour Rights in Serbia During the State of Emergency. Approximately 30 representatives of NGOs, trade unions and interested youths from Knjaževac and Subotica participated in this discussion. What labour rights are guaranteed through international documents? What role do youths play in the world of work in our country? What is the legal framework for labour rights under regular or states of emergency?

Experts in the field of labour rights, first off, Ms Sarita Bradaš, Researcher at the FCD, spoke about guaranteed youth rights stipulated in international documents, about job availability, employment opportunities available to youths within Serbia’s labour market. Ivan Sekulović, Public Policy Consultant at the FCD provided an example of labour rights violations during the state of emergency and presented an analysis entitled Covid-19 Pandemic and Labour Rights in Serbia.

During the discussion, various issues were raised in regard to labour rights during the Covid-19 pandemic: the operation of the labour inspectorate in terms of OH&S, the control of conditions and protective equipment; employers’ rights in terms of establishing conditions for employees to work from home or to continue to come into the workplace; the vulnerability of employees working under temporary employment and their rights during a state of emergency; the issues facing those forced to work ‘under the table’, etc.

The webinar Labour Rights in Serbia During the State of Emergency is part of the Regional Youth Compact for Europe project which is organised under a partnership between the Foundation Center for Democracy and CRTA (Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability) from Belgrade, ALDA (European Association for Local Democracy) seated in Strasbourg, the 9 local democracy agencies which form the BNLD (Balkan Network for Local Democracy) seated in Skopje, Youth Act from Albania and Sodem from Turkey. This project is financed by the European Union and the Balkan Trust for Democracy.