Info days on the implementation of the Law on seasonal work

Within the project „Increasing employment opportunities for seasonal workers“, financed by the German Development Cooperation, in late October and early November NALED organized five info days in Knjaževac, Topola, Požarevac, Sremska Mitrovica and Osečina, presenting the novelties from the recently adopted Law on simplified work engagement for seasonal labor in selected areas of work.

The Law implementation will begin in early 2019 and enable simplified, electronic registration of seasonal workers. The info days were attended by employers hiring seasonal workers in agriculture -  companies and farming households, as well as the representatives of local governments which will host the service centers for supporting farmers with the implementation of new procedures. 

The adoption of the Law on on simplified work engagement for seasonal labor is one of the measures of the National program for countering shadow economy, bearing in mind that a large number of seasonal workers are not registered and do not enjoy any labor-related rights  - according to the Tax Administration data from 2017, around 95% of seasonal workers in agriculture are in the black zone, bearing in mind that there are between 65,000 and 76,000 workers, while only 3,500 have an agreement. The new law was adopted in the Parliament in late June and the required software is currently being developed with the support of German Development Cooperation. According to NALED estimates, the software will enable 33,000 workers to return to the legal flows in the following five years, thus generating additional 15 million euros of budget revenues.