Low security level increases number of job deaths and injuries

The deaths of workers and their injuries at workplaces, officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Management say, have occurred in the private sector, mainly in the construction worker, but do not rule out other sectors as well.

Floration of the late 41-year-old Fadhil, who lost his life in the workplace in January 2016, indicates that it was the nonaquate working conditions that cost his brother life.

“The image occurred last year. He has been in security, employed as a guard at the library Hevizi Sylejmani in Pristina. He fell off the roof of the library after climbing something. From there it was fallen and you found death. Labour conditions and security believe they were not adequate at work”, he says.

Fadhil has left his wife and two children whom Florim, the company his brother had worked for, does not offer financial support.

The company he worked with other than financial support at first has given no further support, reasoning that his work was only to work as a guard rather than to work something there (on the roof of the library), where there was a fatal accident. There has not been any support from the state except for a social assistance”, Florim shows.

Workers in Kosovo in considerable numbers work without health insurance and life insurance.

In the meantime, compared with 2016, the number of fatal accidents in the workplace has marked growth, points to Basri Ibrahim, chief inspector in the Ministry of Labour and Social Health.

Until the number of injured in the workplace reaches 30 people, but that number is said to be greater, since company owners do not always represent cases of injuries.

There are 11 cases of deaths in the workplace this year. So we have more cases of death this year compared with last year, when there were nine deaths in the workplace. Unfortunately, workplace deaths have also resulted from the carelessness of workers, but also because of the failure to meet safety conditions at work”, Ibrahim says.

Job safety in legislative terms in Kosovo is regulated by two laws in force: The work law and the Law for Work Safety, the protection of employee health, and the work environment.

According to the law in effect, the employer is obliged to provide the necessary conditions for protection at work, with which the protection of life and the health of employed are otherwise pronounced fines.

The low level of job safety has been constantly highlighted by mechanisms in Kosovo dealing with the protection of workers.

Avni Aydin, chairman of the Union of Independent Unions of Kosovo, tells Radio Free Europe that the security situation at the workplace is not at the right level. This, according to him, comes from limited inspections of companies.

The “conditions in which workers work in Kosovo are minimal. Work safety is not right. We are not satisfied with the work of the Labour Inspectorate because their human capacities are flawed. More inspections of companies are required, not to come to the workplace deaths”, Aydin says.

The private sector, which is the biggest employer in Kosovo, from representatives of workers' rights advocates, is considered to be the largest worker's rights offender, which therefore has a lower level of job safety, until the situation is much better shown in the public sector.