Businesses Disgusted With Legal Changes for Workers' Entity

According to company owner “Eurofamis” from Suhareka, Ilir Bytyci, the reason why this change could harm businesses comes from the risk of workers coming to work just a few days and then leaving without warning.

He says he has often faced such cases and adds that if the contract was signed since before the start of work, then companies would increase administrative burden on preparing documents and cutting contracts.

We must employ other workers in administration to deal with letters, complaints... this is cost and is a waste of time. We, as a company, need to work as a professional job several days and then sign a contract. We need to obey both us and the worker for working conditions”, says Bytyci for Radio Free Europe.

The requirement that the contract between employers and employees be signed on the first day of start-up is based on changes to the Law on Tax Procedure Management, which was approved in the Kosovo Assembly on December 14th.

This Law says that “any employer should inform the Kosovo Tax Administration (ATK) of linking a labour contract the day before the work starts of”.

Finance, Labour and Transfers Minister Iron Murati has warned there will be punitive measures against businesses that do not adhere to new regulations. Under the Labour Law, penalties may range from 100 euros to ten thousand euros.

The moment the Kosovo Tax Administration (ATK) goes into control and finds undeclared workers, there will surely be punishment”, Minister Murati said.

The employment rate in Kosovo, in 2022, according to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, has been 33.8 percent, or over 403 thousand employed. The private sector accounts for the biggest employer with about 300 thousand employees. This sector has constantly had criticism of inadequate treatment of workers, even contrary to the work Law.

Since last year, this sector has been facing a lack of workers some have been looking for more favourable conditions and moving from one company to another within Kosovo, while some are looking for jobs in EU countries.

Signing the work contract means that the employer is obliged to present the employee to the Kosovo Tax Administration and other institutions, which manage and manage mandatory pension schemes and other schemes.

All of Kosovo's contract employees pay ten percent of their pension contributions: five percent are paid by their employer, while five percent are separated from wages and employees. The worker's salary also removes the value of personal income tax, which is handled by between four and ten percent, depending on the amount of wages.

The owner of the company “Frutex”, Shaqir Palushi, has already been signing workers' contracts since the first day of work. He fears the possibility of misuse of contracts from workers in cases where companies do not have enough legal and administrative staff to address problems.

So far it hasn't happened to us, but it's possible that the worker will work for a few days and ask for a full salary”, he points out.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Director in Pristina Skender Krasniqi expresses concern that the decision on legal change in contracts has been made without any consultation with businesses.

The biggest problems in businesses are [the find of] graduates and unqualified [employment of persons] for the required position. And, in these cases, one month or three months of practical work is needed to see whether the worker is capable of position”, Krasniqi says.

Government Goal, Formation of Workers

Finance, Labour and Transfers Minister Iron Murati has said that with this change, it is not intended to penalise businesses, but is aimed at formalising workers.

The declaration or formalisation of workers is made in the Kosovo Tax Administration (ATK). The Bureau for Information of this institution says the problem of not accepting workers appears only in the private sector.

“ATK has been drafting the specific employment formalisation project for two years, from which there are results not only in numbers, but also in senbilising workers to demand their right”, the ATK's response to REL says.

The Kosovo Statistics Agency's data for 2022 shows that of contract employees in Kosovo, about 48 percent had permanent contracts, while about 52 percent had temporary contracts.

But, the chairman of the Independent Private Sector Union, Yusuf Azemi, says there are still large numbers of unregistered workers in the private sector.

Nevertheless, he believes that since companies have been reluctant to register workers so far, it is now the latter who do not want to sign contracts without favourable working conditions.

Because even within Kosovo there are workers' movements from one business to another even now after liberalisation, even workers who do not want to leave Kosovo want to have contracts that offer security, pay and respect. Today, an owner of a company will be very happy if he manages to sign the contract with a worker”, he says.

To formulate the labour market and to try to increase the employment rate, the Government of Kosovo had launched the <x0 platform Superpuda” early last year.

Through this platform, employers could be subsidized by 264 euros a month to cover a worker's salary. The employer could have offered his worker a higher salary than that by adding the rest himself.

And after a six - month period of subsidies, the employer could keep the worker on the job by signing a new contract but could also download it. Over five thousand young people have been employed through this platform.

In Albania, the Code of Work stipulates that in cases where the working code is connected by mouth, the employer is obliged, within 30 days of the contract's connection date, to write down the relevant document signed by him and employee”.

In the more developed Western countries, however, the practice remains for workers to have contracts from the start of their work. The EU recommends that workers contract the day before starting work or starting work. However, practices among European countries also differ.

“in some EU countries, you have between 1 weeks and 2 months after the first day of work to provide your new employees with employment conditions”, the EU website says. / REL/