Presevo, Bujanovac – According to the relevant Ministry, the inspection services found 285 undeclared workers in nine municipalities and two cities of the southern part of central Serbia. The companies with the largest number of employees working off the books are in Presevo, Bujanovac and Trgoviste.

After several deaths of workers on construction sites in Serbia, who, it was subsequently established, had not been declared to the competent authorities, the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs requested the inspection services to visit the construction sites in Serbia and record the companies that engaged undeclared workers. After a while, a list of 13 employers in the construction industry, who had violated the law in this area, was published. A few days later, the list was expanded to include 121 companies in the territory of Serbia, while the inspectors did not only check the construction companies.

Thus, 285 persons working off the books were found at the time of the inspection carried out in the southern part of central Serbia. Some companies engaged only one or a couple of persons working off the books, while some companies did not report a single worker to the competent authorities.  

In the country’s southernmost point, which is Presevo, nearly one hundred “illegal workers” were found in two companies, one company in Trgoviste engaged 63 undeclared workers, while two employers in Bujanovac engaged 23 persons working off the books.    

The companies in Presevo and Bujanovac where the inspection found unregistered workers are as follows: Presevo – “Agro Abri Plus” – 40 workers and “Solid Europa”- 54 workers, Bujanovac – “Elmija” – 9 workers and “Мilano 2017” – 23 workers.

The above-mentioned data were taken from the website of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs.  

According to the website of the Ministry, at the beginning of September, Zoran Djordjevic, the Minister of Labor and Employment, met with the heads of the labor inspectorate and announced severe penalties for the employers who did not register their workers. He urged everyone who knew someone that hired workers illegally to report it on phone number 0800 / 300-307, which was set up as part of the project "Say No to Undeclared Employment”. The Minister said that stepped up inspections were carried out in July, and that over 400 workers without employment contracts were found in the whole territory of Serbia.  

Source: Jugpress, South Serbia News and Coordination Body