Parliament debates amendments to Labor Law

Parliament debates amendments to Labor Law

The changes provide that employees’ right to seniority-based financial compensation of 0.4 percent per year of service can only be exercised with their current employer, Tanjug is reporting.

Under the law currently in force, seniority is transferable from one employer to another, which means that employees are entitled to exercise that right calculating in their total years of service, while under the proposed amendments, an employee accrues seniority commensurate only with their tenure of employment with their current employer.

According to the draft amendments to the Labor Law, posted on the website of the Serbian parliament, the situation where an employee is dismissed as redundant predicts a payment of a minimum of one third of earnings for each completed year of service with the current employer.

A severance package at retirement would no longer amount to three, but rather two average salaries of an employee.

The draft amendments stipulate that employees shall be entitled to a 26 percent financial compensation for night work, but no compensation for shift work.

Also proposed is that contracts for employment for a specified period of time can only be signed for up to two years instead of up to one year as before.

Under the proposed amendments, the employee shall lose the right to compensation for unused vacation time unless they are laid off. In the case of termination of employment when an employee had not used all or part of their vacation, they are entitled to receive a financial compensation in the amount of the base salary increased by seniority commensurate with the unused vacation days.

The number of days of paid leave of absence that an employee can be granted in the case of wedding, childbirth, grave illness or death of family members is proposed to be cut from seven to five days.

During annual leave, an employee would be entitled to a basic salary increased by seniority for the month under consideration, instead of the payment being based on the average of their salaries from the previous three months.

If an employee is placed on a forced leave of absence, they are entitled to receive a payment amounting to 60 percent of their base salary adjusted for seniority, instead of the average of their earnings from the previous three months like before.