Trade Union: Workers from North Macedonia and Albania Will Lower Price of Local Workforce

The secretary of the Council of Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia (SSSS), Zoran Mihajlovic, said today that the free flow of workforce in the countries of the Open Balkans would damage Serbia the most, lowering the price of the local workforce.

– Workers from Albania and North Macedonia who don’t manage to go to western Europe, but decide to come to Serbia, will lower the price of local workforce, so the exodus to Europe of our, not just experts, but also the less qualified workforce, will continue – Mihajlovic said for Beta.

On January 22, in Skopje, the Protocol on the implementation of the agreement on the conditions for free access to the labor market in the Western Balkans and the Protocol on the connection of the electronic identification scheme for the citizens of the Western Balkans were signed, which means that there will be a single labor market from March 1, so the workers will not need residence and work permits for working in any of those countries.

Mihajlovic doesn’t believe that workers from Serbia will seek jobs in North Macedonia or Albania.

In those countries, he said, unemployment is higher than in Serbia, so the motive to come could be a slightly bigger wage, but also the fact that it is closer than going to an EU state.

He said that he feared that the employers would now misuse workers from those two countries more and that there would be more illegal employment.

He added that those workers would be attractive to foreign investors, but also that “Serbia should attract foreign investors because of the employment of local, and not foreign, workers.”

Mihajlovic said that there were plenty of unknown details about how the contributions for social and pension insurance for those foreign workers would be paid.

Savez samostalnih sindikata Srbije

Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia

SSSS

Zoran Mihajlović

single labor market

Open Balkans