Azem: Kosovo workers are being guarded by God

Azemi said institutions are not nearly where they should be and that, according to him, in many cases workers “preserve only God”.

I think that in some form is the most priority problem that all society needs to be addressed, and in particular institutions that are relevant to protect the right, the law and the security at work. We're going up, and we're not even close. I've often followed that in these cases, in spite of what we're doing, these workers can only save God, otherwise we as institutions are not doing even the minimum of what we've been called for and should be”, Azemi said.

He blamed company owners primarily, saying they are not assessing the risk at work and are not taking necessary measures to protect workers.

The main risks in the first place are, we say, company owners are not at the right level because they have to assess the risk at the workplace for workers and the moment they see there's some risk, then they have to take adequate measures. But these aren't assessing this and in some form they're not having adequate access to the prevention of these things, which we're especially saying in the first place are the owners of companies, then the relevant institutions starting with the Labour Inspectorate and the Labour Ministry”, he said.

According to Azem, about 90 percent of private sector employers are failing to enforce the Law on Safety and Health at Work.

Absolutely not close! I have said a little earlier that 90% of Kosovo private sector workers are not respecting the law on security and labour health in that respect that the company's own owner is not asking for it. And the very fact that the owner of the company does not convey the safety and health of the worker, then the main factor for this event is the owner of the company”, Azemi said.

It called for increasing the number of job inspectors, specialising them on security and health issues at work, as well as co-operation between institutions and trade unions in educating employers and workers.

I think that in the first place the Labour Inspectorate should increase the number of inspectors to a much larger number. First place. In the second order, these inspectors must be in some form certified, or should be specialised in the law on security and health at work, because an inspector who is general inspector cannot know and does not know the risks of the workplace for these workers. And I've warned that there must be mechanisms, unions, the Ministry of Labor and Inspectorate that we have a joint group that we go out to lobby and in some form educate or even train many owners of companies together with workers and show you that the risk of working is equal to the death of employees”, he says.