[TV PRVA] More than 60,000 seasonal workers have been hired so far through the portal “Seasonal workers”
For more than three years since the portal “Seasonal workers” is active, there are over 60,000 depraved workers in agriculture through gadgets. This system enable a real pension and health insurance, and financial and administrative relief to employers.
- According to reports from the portal seasonal workers, managed by the Tax Administration, the jobs of cleaning, packaging, and sorting are the most represented, followed by the jobs of picking apple fruits and land preparation, planting, planting, and harvesting jobs. About a third of agricultural workers are in these jobs, and we see by communication by producers that the need for seasonal workers grows every year, said Isidora Smigic, a regulatory reform specialist at NALED, appearing on TV PRVA.
According to her, workers between the ages of 40 and 65 are the most common, however, according to field data, some older people are ready to dedicate themselves to the job. She also explained that reforming the electronic simplified work engagement of seasonal workers in Serbia bears the most similarities with countries such as Montenegro, Albania, and Northern Macedonia.
- But there's a difference in the sector. In our predominantly pre-eminent issue was the issue of seasonal jobs in agriculture, while in Montenegro it is in tourism, and in Albania, it is a combination – both agriculture and tourism, Smigic said.
As for the lack of labor for certain seasonal jobs, she noted that this is not only a problem in Serbia but the entire region and also in Europe.
The fact is, these jobs are harder physically, so it's not surprising that it's hard to find workers. They also require some kind of skill and knowledge, however, so the information we have is that farm owners and agricultural producers prefer to find someone with whom they have long-term co-operation, rather than search again and again for new workers, Smigic explained.
In her opinion, there is fluctuation in the area of seasonal employment, in the sense that workers change a lot, they seek the best conditions, the best employer, and in that sense, there is a flow, i.e. a change of workers.
- Also, what came to us as information is that even when the workers work, there is a problem that they did not want to be reported, i.e. noted for fear of losing some kind of benefits they have - welfare or other types of monetary assistance, so this was the problem we encountered when we talked to employers about the situation on the ground, Smigic noted.
Here you can see record from TV PRVA:
