Shocking confessions showing mistreatment to Kosovo workers at the brandet

Large brand workers are often treated very badly by employers. They work without employment contracts, work during holidays, over-hours, and they are not paid. On some large brands, they have only one day off every two weeks, but when they receive their annual vacation, they are not paid at all. Markets at the end of the year often condemn workers by 2050 euros for their “mistakes”. When the inspectors go for inspection,

Workers working on large brands have poor treatment from their employers. The report between them does not apply nearly any provision of the Labour Law. Many of these workers have no employment contracts, they work long hours without compensation, while some of them have a day off every two weeks.

This group of workers does not enjoy the holidays at all, for parties must work long hours and often have no rest.

Praportr has talked to some of the workers who work on these brands. They tell of their poor work experience while not believing that the Labour Inspectorate can help.

B.H. was getting ready to go to work. She works at one of the major markets in Pristina. She's a student, and she says she did it to cover her schooling. He's been working on this market for about three years while telling about the bad experience he's had so far.

It's not like I'm so willing to do this, but I have to cover up my research expenses. It's a bad job environment because of the poor management treatment, but we workers there have a good time, and that's an important thing, because the schedule is pretty long”, she says.

It tells us that they often work overtime according to the agreement, while working hours are overindulgence during the holidays.

I worked a year without contract. Then we get contracts for three months but that are just letters, since no rights are respected from there, from work schedules, rest days, layoffs, and so on. These contracts give you no job guarantees. There have been times when someone was fired for no reason at all”, says B.H.

Meanwhile, he says he has not made an effort to inform the Labour Inspectorate, as he says he does not have enough trust and that for such a job she has, it is not worth entering in many procedures.

There have been times when I've been grieving that I haven't been paid extra hours, when they give us an undeserved punishment, etc., I've wanted to go to the Labour Inspector, but I don't believe that anything can be fixed. The other reason is that for such a job with a salary of 250 euros, it is not worth entering all those procedures even if you condemn your employer, in a few days you get laid. It doesn't change anything”, she said.

When the inspector comes, the boss takes us off the market”

A.D. works at a major market known in Pristina. She says she has been working there for over a year and the treatment of workers is bad and no rights of workers are respected, as she has heard the Labour Law guarantees. They don't have a job contract, and they say they take it cash (Cash). Consequently, they do not enjoy any job rights, while they may even be fired at any time.

She says she works this job because there is no other option, and she has not tried to change her job, since she says that a similar situation is in other markets.

When I started working, the first month I didn't get a break, I was told that you only started and that's the rules. We actually have a day off every two weeks. Even when we have a holiday break, we usually have to work twice the time to compensate for it. For example, when we had a day off for New Year's Eve, the next day we've been working doubled times”, she says.

Except for the few days for their annual vacation, even for the rest of the days, they are not paid at all.

When we get our annual holiday we're right up to 10 days. This vacation is not paid, at the end of the month, when we get our salaries, we stop the money for as many days as we've been on vacation”, she tells us.

And when new products come to the market, he says that all workers should work long hours to code and arrange all those products and that they are not paid for the extra job.

She says that during her working period, this market has been inspected by the Labour Inspectorate, but they have found no violations, since workers who have been without contracts have been evacuated.

The Job Inspector's Department has arrived once and the boss told us to leave the market. There were only 2-3 employees with business contracts. They showed that inspectors have been surprised how only those workers work on such a large market”, says A.D.

The failure of the Inspectorate in such cases has also occurred in the fact that the Labour Inspectorate under work methodology has warned employers about a month ago that they will go for inspection. When employers have this information, they dismiss their workers for several hours until the inspection is complete.

Meanwhile, another girl (A.M) tells us about her bad experience at another Pristina market. When she started working, she was told that she would have three days ' practice, and on pay she had an estimated ten days.

She says that during her working time, work schedules have not been respected and that they have been forced to work overtime free of charge.

The clock for the workers was morning (07:00-15:00), and in the afternoon 1500 hours -- we usually went about 10 minutes before the hour because of the preparation. But sometimes the time of the morning extends until 4 or 5 o'clock, unless the manager has to keep us longer at”, says A.M.

She says that even her salary has not been paid full, as she has had in the contract, which she says had in three months.

When I've been hired, I've got 250 euros in my salary, but I've never been given a full salary, and I haven't been given any excuse. My first salary has been paid 170 euros because I have been counted 10 practical days, while my second salary is 200 and my third salary is 225 euros”, she said.

Because of poor treatment, she says she couldn't work more than three months.

And the manager started to be mean to me from the first day of the pay job, and she started telling me things like I was standing in the ark and there was no work at that moment, and she was telling me you'd go fill a bucket of water and not stay here like a statue! A few days later another worker came and similarly treated him”, she confessed.

Maybe someone who looks like this, but me who was working there and it was my first job, the manager's excessive pressure, didn't even let me concentrate on my job”, says A.M.

L.G. has been working on a large market at the entrance of Pristina for about five years. He says he's been working without contract for all this time. Even those with contracts say they continue every three months.

He says that this network of markets regularly accepts applications for new workers, almost every day there are people who compete and take CV to get rich on the list. According to him, this is like direct pressure on workers, and on the other hand, even if fired, they immediately get workers who have applied earlier.

“The largest share is working without contracts. They often get fired. I was there when the chief chief fired three employees just because he saw them laughing and I think he was nervous”, says L.G.

It shows that management uses various methods of punishment against workers, halting part of even small wages.

Each worker is sentenced to 20-50 euros allegedly because of his mistakes. They find him a little something to punish. This is possible for the end of a year when there are prices to compensate for those discounts or I don't know why. But if we consider that there are points in many cities in Kosovo, the number of workers convicted and the money the owners collect is big”, he says.

Meanwhile, Yusuf Azemi, chairman of the Independent Union of Small Economy and Zytari, says the state of the private sector in terms of contracts and treatment of workers is very bad. He says he has ascertained this during visits that unions have done in some of the private companies.

The private sector's <x0). The worker is in the humblest form in front of company owners. There are workers working at a company for more than five years, and only three months are under way. We've raised concern about the inspectorate, but nothing is being undertaken”, Azemi says.

For the poor treatment of workers at large brands, Preportr has also talked to the chief inspector, Basri Ibrahimi. He says that frequent departures from the work of workers at the market are due to a space left in the Labour Law, where the employer can offer employment contracts as long as he wishes.

We've considered that it's not fair and it's not good, because when the employer made a three-month contract, then the employee's overworked, because the employer can misuse this and force the worker to work on the conditions that his employer put on him, otherwise he won't continue the contract. While there is this disproportion between the offer and the demand on the labour market, workers are more forced to work even under conditions that are not completely legal”, Ibrahim says, adding that for this reason they have proposed that a minimum contract is in the draft of the Labour Law.

(Besnik Boletini. The theme is researched by Preportr