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Belgrade – With certain adjustments, the electronic system for the registration of seasonal workers in agriculture could be extended to other activities.
Source: Tanjug
Photo: Depositphotos, rachwal
This especially refers to the domestic and auxiliary jobs of caring for children, the elderly, pets, cleaning and maintenance work, food delivery, construction and other similar jobs, it was said at the NALED conference in Belgrade.
At least 80,000 construction workers, waiters and waiters, nannies, cleaners and similar professions are estimated to work illegally.
The most common reasons why employers do not even consider registering them are high costs, complicated procedure and insufficiently flexible form of recruitment, showed the analysis of NALED and the German Organization for Development Cooperation on the possibilities of expanding the system of simplified employment of seasonal and casual workers. It currently operates only in agriculture.
In the year and a half since the introduction of this system in agriculture, the number of registered seasonal workers has increased more than 10 times: from 3,500 to about 42,500 workers, the meeting said.
Snezana Bogdanovic, Senior Advisor on Labor and Employment Sector at the Ministry of Labor, said at the panel “The future of simplified employment in Serbia” that needs to be considered and what jobs can be transferred from the gray zone to Legal flows .
He emphasizes that it is very important to improve conditions and the way of working whenever possible.
Dragan Agatunović from the Tax Administration said that the institution is ready for a broader scope of this system, that is, expansion to other activities as was done in agriculture.
It points out that if the government and the competent ministries take a decision in that direction, the Tax Administration will be ready to continue with activities in this regard and support the introduction of such systems to suppress the underground economy.
The director of the regulatory reform team at NALED, Jelena Bojović, said that it would be useful to apply the system as applied in agriculture when it comes to other jobs, and that as an incentive for those employers or individuals who hire workers in this sector. However, especially for housework or babysitting jobs, it might be possible to introduce certain vouchers and make some services cheaper.
“Stimulation for both would be the right measure, but all of that should be considered in more detail,” Bojović said.
During 820,000 days of hiring seasonal workers in agriculture, taxes and contributions in the amount of 250 million dinars were paid, and this system was used by 311 employers.
The registration of a seasonal worker can be done for a period exceeding one day (if there is a need for such hiring), but it should be noted that a worker in seasonal jobs cannot be hired for more than 120 days a year.
Branislava Đorić from the Ministry of Agriculture said in response to questions that the deadline should be considered and possibly extended if necessary, although a period of 120 days covers the needs of agriculture.
Valentina Đureta from GIZ-DKTI IMPACT said that GIZ is preparing several more projects and that in the coming days and weeks it will be a question of how this model can be expanded and introduce new possibilities for more flexible work.
He recalled that the German Development Cooperation supported the introduction of the electronic registration of seasonal workers in order to increase employment opportunities and reduce the shadow economy.
Thanks to the introduction of an electronic system for the registration of seasonal workers in agriculture, about 50 percent of the estimated number of seasonal workers in this area has been translated into legal channels, the NALED conference was told today.
Of the total number of employees in Serbia, one in five people work illegally and, in addition to agriculture, the majority work in tourism and catering (15.1 percent) and construction (11.3 percent), while all other people work in housekeeping and auxiliary jobs. no contract and no right to pension insurance and protection against work injuries for each day you spend on the job.
Informal employment is one of the key generators of the shadow economy, because for every 100 dinars spinning in the gray zone, 62 dinars come from undeclared wages and 38 dinars from undeclared earnings, the analysis showed.
The problem is compounded by the fact that in Serbia, one third of informally hired people work for less than three months, one in five work for up to six months, and only 16% of them are hired for up to one year. About 126,000 of them work solely on the basis of a verbal agreement.
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