Post by radovic on Apr 30, 2008 10:44:52 GMT -5
Sandzak’s Invisible Workers Fear for the Future
Email a friend
Save article
Print article
Increase text size
Decrease text size
30 April 2008 Thousands of people working unofficially in Novi Pazar’s small businesses face a precarious future, as they will have no pensions.
By Amela Bajrovic in Novi Pazar
After a ten-hour day in a jeans factory in Novi Pazar, in Serbia’s southwest Sandzag region, 37-year-old Meliha goes home where two children, a husband and many household chores await her.
Meliha has been working in the factory for the last two years for a salary of 300 euros a month but her employer does not pay her any pension or disability insurance.
“I’d like to be insured and have my years of service counted, but what can I do,” she asked. “If I want my retirement and disability insurance paid, I must do it myself, out of my salary.
“But this does not suit me, because then I would only have 200 euros left each month,” Meliha explained.
Meliha is one of many people in Novi Pazar whose name never figures on the roll call of registered employees.
The number of registered workers in the town of 100,000 is deceptive.
Officially, the unemployment rate in Novi Pazar is among the highest in Serbia. Around 21,000 locals are listed as jobless at the National Employment Service.
Meliha is one of them – one of a large number of locals working illegally and invisibly in the black economy.
The factory where Meliha works is one of the few doing good business in the area.
But more than half of the 300 odd people who work there are officially “unemployed”.
Employers like it this way because they save money. By law in Serbia, employers have to pay retirement and disability insurance contributions on behalf of all their employees.
Nihad Bisevac, head of the National Employment Service in Novi Pazar, told Balkan Insight that most unemployed persons in the town regularly checked in to get their health-insurance cards and children’s allowance.
“If it weren’t for the health-insurance card and children's allowance, we would have a lot less unemployed people registered in Novi Pazar,” Bisevac complained.
He said the number of unemployed in the municipality grew each year and had jumped by 5,000 in the last six years alone.
Sorted by educational attainment, the largest number are wholly unqualified “blue collar” workers, followed by those holding high school diplomas. About 300 had university degrees.
Employers say they have no incentive to persuade illegal workers to come off the town’s unemployment roll.
One man, the owner of several food stores, said he would have to close most of his shops if he had to paid retirement and disability insurance on behalf of his workforce.
“The sums that have to be paid for retirement and disability insurance are large, equivalent to 63 per cent of the worker’s salary,” he said. “It’s impossible to pay them to all the workers and earn something for yourself.”
Novi Pazar is no different than the rest of Serbia, as all employers in the country are obliged to pay the state 63 per cent of the salary for benefits.
Storeowners generally pay insurance contributions for themselves and their close family members. Some larger manufacturers offer their workers the chance to pay their contributions by themselves.
Bisera Seceragic, chair of the Novi Pazar office of the European Movement in Serbia, said she believed about 30 per cent of the town’s 21,000 unemployed were working illegally – mainly in low-paid temporary work.
She blamed the Serbian government’s neglect of Novi Pazar for the constant increase in the number of unemployed.
“Serbia has failed to create conditions for jobless people to get back into work,” she said.
“Our private entrepreneurs work with decreased capacity and do not have continuous production,” she added.
“They produce goods for several months only… in such conditions it’s difficult for them to pay insurance to their employees.”
Seceragic said closer economic ties with Europe and access to the European market were the only hope for struggling small private entrepreneurs in the Sandzak region.
But Sacir Licina, the inspector for labour and employment in Novi Pazar, was less sympathetic to the plight of employers.
“Private businessmen deduct insurance contributions from their workers’ salaries, because it does not suit them,” he said.
“We often write misdemeanour reports against local private owners for doing that,” Licina added.
The inspector confirmed that he spent a considerable amount of time sending lists of names of people found to be working illegally to the National Employment Service, so that they can be erased from the jobless register.
Meanwhile, Meliha goes home – happy to have a job but worried about her long-term security.
“I would be very happy knowing my children might live and work in better conditions,” she said.
“I fear for my old age because if I don’t take out any retirement insurance soon, I won’t have a right to a pension.”
Amela Bajrovic is a reporter on Radio Sto Plus and Balkan Insight’s correspondent in Sandzak. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.
This article was produced as part of OSCE `s Mission in Serbia Economic Journalism training project in cooperation with BIRN.
Email a friend
Save article
Print article
Increase text size
Decrease text size
30 April 2008 Thousands of people working unofficially in Novi Pazar’s small businesses face a precarious future, as they will have no pensions.
By Amela Bajrovic in Novi Pazar
After a ten-hour day in a jeans factory in Novi Pazar, in Serbia’s southwest Sandzag region, 37-year-old Meliha goes home where two children, a husband and many household chores await her.
Meliha has been working in the factory for the last two years for a salary of 300 euros a month but her employer does not pay her any pension or disability insurance.
“I’d like to be insured and have my years of service counted, but what can I do,” she asked. “If I want my retirement and disability insurance paid, I must do it myself, out of my salary.
“But this does not suit me, because then I would only have 200 euros left each month,” Meliha explained.
Meliha is one of many people in Novi Pazar whose name never figures on the roll call of registered employees.
The number of registered workers in the town of 100,000 is deceptive.
Officially, the unemployment rate in Novi Pazar is among the highest in Serbia. Around 21,000 locals are listed as jobless at the National Employment Service.
Meliha is one of them – one of a large number of locals working illegally and invisibly in the black economy.
The factory where Meliha works is one of the few doing good business in the area.
But more than half of the 300 odd people who work there are officially “unemployed”.
Employers like it this way because they save money. By law in Serbia, employers have to pay retirement and disability insurance contributions on behalf of all their employees.
Nihad Bisevac, head of the National Employment Service in Novi Pazar, told Balkan Insight that most unemployed persons in the town regularly checked in to get their health-insurance cards and children’s allowance.
“If it weren’t for the health-insurance card and children's allowance, we would have a lot less unemployed people registered in Novi Pazar,” Bisevac complained.
He said the number of unemployed in the municipality grew each year and had jumped by 5,000 in the last six years alone.
Sorted by educational attainment, the largest number are wholly unqualified “blue collar” workers, followed by those holding high school diplomas. About 300 had university degrees.
Employers say they have no incentive to persuade illegal workers to come off the town’s unemployment roll.
One man, the owner of several food stores, said he would have to close most of his shops if he had to paid retirement and disability insurance on behalf of his workforce.
“The sums that have to be paid for retirement and disability insurance are large, equivalent to 63 per cent of the worker’s salary,” he said. “It’s impossible to pay them to all the workers and earn something for yourself.”
Novi Pazar is no different than the rest of Serbia, as all employers in the country are obliged to pay the state 63 per cent of the salary for benefits.
Storeowners generally pay insurance contributions for themselves and their close family members. Some larger manufacturers offer their workers the chance to pay their contributions by themselves.
Bisera Seceragic, chair of the Novi Pazar office of the European Movement in Serbia, said she believed about 30 per cent of the town’s 21,000 unemployed were working illegally – mainly in low-paid temporary work.
She blamed the Serbian government’s neglect of Novi Pazar for the constant increase in the number of unemployed.
“Serbia has failed to create conditions for jobless people to get back into work,” she said.
“Our private entrepreneurs work with decreased capacity and do not have continuous production,” she added.
“They produce goods for several months only… in such conditions it’s difficult for them to pay insurance to their employees.”
Seceragic said closer economic ties with Europe and access to the European market were the only hope for struggling small private entrepreneurs in the Sandzak region.
But Sacir Licina, the inspector for labour and employment in Novi Pazar, was less sympathetic to the plight of employers.
“Private businessmen deduct insurance contributions from their workers’ salaries, because it does not suit them,” he said.
“We often write misdemeanour reports against local private owners for doing that,” Licina added.
The inspector confirmed that he spent a considerable amount of time sending lists of names of people found to be working illegally to the National Employment Service, so that they can be erased from the jobless register.
Meanwhile, Meliha goes home – happy to have a job but worried about her long-term security.
“I would be very happy knowing my children might live and work in better conditions,” she said.
“I fear for my old age because if I don’t take out any retirement insurance soon, I won’t have a right to a pension.”
Amela Bajrovic is a reporter on Radio Sto Plus and Balkan Insight’s correspondent in Sandzak. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.
This article was produced as part of OSCE `s Mission in Serbia Economic Journalism training project in cooperation with BIRN.