Young people leave Kosovo, lack of workers forces companies to hire even pensioners

Lack of workers has begun to be observed in almost all sectors. This is because young people are migrateing to European countries every day, but during the summer season they are also working in coastal countries.

Kosovo Private Sector Workers Union Chairman Yusuf Azemi said there are many reasons for Kosovo's departure of workers.

“We actually have many reasons, the first reason is that more than 20 years have passed and the state of workers in this sector has not improved in the first place, in the second order that qualified workers have found their way in some form, they haven't gone but we have forced them to go, because we haven't paid them the proper amount of pay they've got here, and these qualified workers, except for the basic nutrition issues themselves, couldn't do anything, he said.

Azemi says that in the absence of workers, retirees are being employed at work.

We have a lot of working places where, in the absence of them, we have retired workers working instead of those who are young but specifically 90 percent of their age from 20 to 40 years of age where their primary orientation is just leaving, because we're saying we haven't created adequate conditions that at least day have a share of its well-being for their families... Young people have learned from the old generations because those who have worked for decades and in the end have definitely not been able to create a good social mission and from the past, but also from the vision that is being seen there is absolutely no perspective here and the only prospect is to leave abroad and you know that in just two years we've had over 200,000 applications for the outside, so young people don't see perspective in Kosovo<1>, Azemi said.

The union, according to Azem, has taken all actions that are also controversial and has warned company owners to create better conditions for private sector workers.

Gastronomy and private hospitals, though they have been running competitions for several months, are also struggling to find workers as waiters, chess players, doctors, nurses, and therapists.

Arian Vranica from the Gastronomies Association has told Kosovo Press that before and after the pandemic, workers are continuing to have problems with labour contracts, small salaries and not paying contributions from employers. This has also led young people to seek work abroad, which is a growing trend this year.

There are more presentations of workers who refuse to work without contracts, which is very good, but on the other hand is a manifestation of an economic crisis that has emerged with extremely high inflation, so even workers have raised the demands of having a salary that is more or less compatible with the standard, which is created as a new standard. The increase in prices, the increase in monthly spending, usually means that there is no other option than to increase the income of workers, but on the state side it has to be a kind of strategy because it's not just about the things I mentioned, but it's also about the problem of the labor migration law... 02:57 more workers should be valued, you should be paid the contributions, because he's making a contribution not just for business, not just for his own family, or for his country, but also for the state, it has to be fully formulated, the state must work more <1>

Vranica thinks that another problem for the private sector is summer seasons, since most young people are looking for work on the Albanian coast and in European countries.

A rise in the interest of Kosovo private sector workers in general is being shown every year and more, but gastronomy in particular to emigrate to other countries, which means. The European Union, which is not the problem that is being manifested only in Kosovo, is also in other countries, but especially in the second part of the year from June onward, there is an increase of diaspora present in Kosovo, but we are also being threatened by coastal countries, which have an added tourism in the report than with Kosovo. This is another problem that is making business and workers difficult on the other side” said Vranica.

Vlora Shoshi, manager of a private hospital for physical therapy and rehabilitation, in an electronic response to Kosova Prees, has said that several months now they have opened competitions for doctors, nurses and the therapists, but that the number of interested people is dim, until it has added that job demands are huge by entrepreneurs.

We generally have small difficulties in the health sector, doctors, nurses and therapists. Problems are related to pandemics that in two years, health professionals have not had access to complete practice and licensing procedures. Now after the release of the measures, this year the number of licensed and health staff has begun to rise, but it is a small increase compared to market demand. As far as working conditions are concerned, we meet all required criteria for workers, while in terms of salaries, workers are paid 10-20% more than in the public sector and the general market in the Republic of Kosovo” Shoshi has said.

The lack of nurses and doctors in Kosovo has also been highlighted by nongovernmental unions for which protests were organised, asking the Government to create better conditions for the sector.

Behind the cameras, gastronomy sector businesses have told KosovoPress that most young people in Pristina are students, who years earlier have been more interested in working in the gastronomy sector, but that this interest, business owners, is seeing smaller ones, as the same have fled abroad. /kp