The Voice of the Workers No. 5
summary of content

Flexibilisation and new types of work 

The fifth issue of the regional newsletter “Voice of the Worker” is dedicated to flexibility and new forms of work, one of the most important trends in the labour market over the last few decades. In addition to thematic texts, the newsletter also contains news about the most important activities, initiatives and actions of the trade union headquarters of the members of the Regional Trade Union Council “Solidarnost”.

Thematic texts are written by experts of the trade union headquarters, while the authors of the news are trade union journalists of the headquarters or media unions. All the texts were redacted and edited by members of the “Voice of Workers” Editorial Board.

Main observations of thematic texts:

• Labour legislation in all countries of the region defines an employment contract for an indefinite period of time as a standard way of employment, but in all countries there is a visible trend of increasing the number and scope of the use of different atypical forms of work.
• The most common among them is a fixed-term work contract, while recently in most countries there has been a noticeable increase in work on digital platforms, as well as remote work.
• Although the laws prescribe the exact reasons and situations in which it is allowed to use atypical forms of work, employers in all countries often use them even when it is not objectively justified, in order to reduce costs and transfer the business risk to workers.
• In most countries of the region, labour inspections are generally weakly capacitated and ineffective. This problem is particularly noticable when it comes to atypical forms of work, because inspections often do not want to question the justification of their use, or even do not have the authority to do so.
• Unions in all countries of the region have taken at least the first steps in attempts to unionise atypical workers, but they continue to face significant challenges in this area. Attempts to organise platform workers into a union have currently been underway in several countries.

Reasons for the spread of atypical forms of work

Labour legislation in all countries of the region defines an employment contract for an indefinite period as a standard way of employment. Despite this, the trend of increasing the number and scope of the use of various atypical forms of work is visible in all the countries. The most common among them is a fixed-term employment contract, but atypical forms of work also include other non-standard forms of employment contracts, as well as different forms of contracts that do not establish an employment relationship at all and do not acquire employment rights arising from it, such as the right on paid leave and sick leave, and many others.

The spread of atypical forms of work is a global trend of recent decades, which has not bypassed the countries of the region. Liberalisation and deregulation of the labour market, including the expansion of atypical forms of work, are carried out in the name of greater economic efficiency and reduction of unemployment, but in reality they result in a reduction in the general level of workers’ rights, an increase in insecurity and the collapse of the collective bargaining system.

The laws of all the countries, more or less precisely, prescribe the exact reasons and situations for which such atypical forms of work are intended. Nevertheless, in all countries it is noticeable that employers often use them even when this is not objectively justified, with the main reasons for such practice being the lowering of costs and the transfer of business risk from the employer to the workers.

Atypical forms of work thus often cover up the real employment, as a result of which both the workers, who are denied the labour and social rights they should enjoy, and the state, which often loses a significant part of its income from taxes and contributions, are harmed.

So, for example, in Croatia, it has been noticed that agency work, which should serve to satisfy the temporary need to perform a particular job, is increasingly being used to fill permanent positions. Fixed-term work, on the other hand, is often used for the purpose of “trying out the worker”, i.e. instead of a probationary period, although this is not its legal purpose and should not be allowed.

It is also interesting that in many countries, for example in Croatia and Montenegro, the use of fixed-term work and some other atypical forms of work is equally represented in both the public and private sectors.

The most comon atypical types of work

Unofficial estimates indicate that about a third of workers in Serbia are employed through one of the atypical forms of work, the most common being fixed-term work, part-time work, contracts that do not establish an employment relationship (contract on performing temporary or periodical jobs, service contract, etc.), freelancing, seasonal work, work through a temporary employment agency and dependent self-employment.

In the Federation of B&H, there is a noticeable difference between atypical forms of work that are regulated by law, such as fixed-term employment, part-time work and remote work and those that are not legally regulated, such as temporary agency assignment of workers or platform work. In the latter case, workers are almost completely legally unprotected.

In the second entity of B&H, Republika Srpska, the flexibility of the employment relationship is possible in terms of its duration (fixed-term employment contract), the number of working hours (part-time work), the method of salary payment (when employing domestic help staff, payment in kind as a part of the wage) and place of work (remote work). The law considers all these forms of work as exceptions and prescribes the conditions and types of work for which they can be used. The Labour Law also regulates forms of work that do not establish an employment relationship, such as contracts for temporary and occasional jobs, contracts for supplementary work and contracts for work. Nevertheless, even though an employment contract for an indefinite period should be the rule, in more than 90 percent of cases when establishing an employment relationship, i.e. the first employment, employers use a fixed-term employment contract and other atypical forms, including contracts that do not establish an employment relationship.

In North Macedonia, the problem of illegal (undeclared) work in general is significant, and the efforts of unions related to atypical forms of work are focused to a significant extent on more effective inspection supervision of workers’ applications for social insurance, as well as on facilitating workers to report violations of labour rights. Among the trends in atypical forms of work in recent years, the increase in remote work, as well as the increasingly massive work via digital platforms, for which there is still a lack of appropriate legal regulation, stands out. As a result, platform workers are mostly engaged outside the regulated labour relationship and are not covered by the social protection and security system. Drafting of a special law on contracts on performing temporary or periodical jobs is underway, which so far is going in a direction that would leave such work outside the framework of the rights and protection of the usual employment relationship. According to the first draft of the law, casual and temporary workers, among other things, would not have the right to paid vacation and sick leave, and could work more than eight hours a day, without the right to overtime compensation.

In Montenegro, atypical forms of work, although they should be an exception by law, are also increasingly becoming the rule. Among them, fixed-term work contracts, agency contracts, contracts on performing temporary or periodical jobs, part-time work contracts, service contracs, and remote work contracts are increasingly common. It is particularly worrisome that the state administration bodies themselves are increasingly using forms of contracts that do not establish an employment relationship at all and do not guarantee rights from work and on the basis of work, such as service contracts and contracts on performing temporary or periodical jobs.

In Slovenia, there is also an important difference between atypical forms of work that are already regulated by labour legislation and function in practice, such as a fixed-term employment contract, performing tasks in unevenly distributed working hours, seasonal and agency work, and on the other hand those forms of work that are still not regulated well enough, or even at all, by law, such as remote work and work on digital platforms.

In Croatia, as in other countries, among the atypical forms of work that are used in practice, the fixed-term employment contract dominates, whose wide spread among the public is often justified by the high seasonality of the Croatian economy. However, research shows that the main reason for their use is to try out workers, and in general to transfer business risks to them. Although official statistics in recent years show a visible decrease in the share of fixed-term employment contracts in the total number of contracts, as well as relatively small percentages of agency and part-time work (compared to the average of other European Union members), such data hide the true state of affairs because they include only the contracts on which the employment relationship is based. According to a 2018 survey by the Croatian Association of Independent Trade Unions, only about 55% of workers were employed through a permanent employment contract, while about 27% of them worked through a fixed-term labour contract or seasonal contract. The remaining 18% of employees worked through various forms of contracts that do not establish an employment relationship and do not acquire related labour and social rights, such as a student contract, a service contract and an author’s contract, as well as professional training for work without establishing an employment relationship.

Supervision challenges

In most countries of the region, trade unions consider the capacity and general effectiveness of labour inspections to be far insufficient, but this issue is particularly noticable when it comes to atypical forms of work. Thus, in Croatia, atypical forms of work are not at all the focus of the labour inspection, which does not want, nor can it, go into the fundamental question of the justification of the very establishment of a fixed-term employment contract.

In Serbia, the competence of the inspection for many categories of atypical workers, except for those employed through fixed-term employment contracts, is very limited, since the Labour Law does not apply to such persons at all. Consequently, the competence of the inspection in non-standard forms of work mainly refers to the control of the application of regulations from occupational safety.

In the Republika Srpska, the practice of applying for the lowest amount of salary and paying the rest on the basis of “cash in hand” is widespread.

In North Macedonia, however, the State Labour Inspectorate has the authority to order the employer to conclude an employment contract with that person for an indefinite period in a situation where it finds a person in the company who is not registered for social insurance.

Although the legislation of some countries contains certain protective provisions that seek to ensure the equal position of atypically employed workers, inequalities are common in practice, and spill over into other aspects of life (for example, the inability to access bank loans and, consequently, solve the housing issue).

The impact of the pandemic on flexibility of labour relations

In all the countries of the region, the pandemic primarily affected the spread of remote work, which in the first phase was stimulated by epidemiological measures and efforts to reduce social contacts. After the normalisation of social contacts, it turned out that some workers are comfortable with working from home, but also that some employers tend to continue using it in order to reduce their costs.

In Serbia, the pandemic affected the growth of all atypical forms of employment, because employers, due to job losses and reduced income, became more cautious in hiring for an indefinite period and began to opt for outsourcing and various forms of temporary contracts even more often than before.

In North Macedonia and Slovenia, the pandemic primarily affected the increase in the frequency of remote working.

Unionisation of atypical workers

Non-standard forms of work represent a challenge for trade unions all over the world, including in the countries of the region. Unionisation of such workers is challenging because they often do not work together in the same place, establish short-term working relationships with employers, and have different and mutually different working conditions compared to permanent employees.

The Confederation of Trade Unions of Montentgro  is currently focused on attempts to unionise freelancers, platform workers and remote workers

The experiences of Slovenian trade unions related to attempts to organise platform workers show that these workers are ready to unionise first of all in order to achieve a higher price for their work, as well as paid sick leave, while achieving the status of a regular employment relationship and associated labour and social rights is not a priority issue for them. In the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, this fact is explained by the lack of information and awareness of workers about the consequences of work through civil law contracts, especially when it comes to social rights and rights arising from the employment relationship.

In 2021, the Union of Digital Platform Workers (SRDP) was founded in Croatia, which also carried out the first successful union action of platform workers in Croatia, the boycott of Uber due to delayed payments. However, despite the initial success and good visibility in the public, the union failed to survive in the long term due to difficulties in expanding membership, due to high turnover and different labour-legal statuses of platform workers.

In 2023, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina started preparing a series of activities related to the union organisation of platform workers, the goal of which is to find a formula that will enable their organisation and protection from exploitation.

The Confederation of Trade Unions of Republika Srpska enabled workers to join the union individually, with the payment of a symbolic annual membership fee, with the aim of facilitating the union organisation of atypical workers. However, even though individual members are guaranteed the same level of rights protection as other members, in practice it is difficult to encourage them to join the union because they often change jobs and employers.

News on trade union activities in the region

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced the news about the international panel discussion entitled “Platform workers and the union – where we are today and how to move forward”, held in Sarajevo. On that occasion, the results of the first research on the working conditions of workers on digital platforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina were presented.

The Confederation of Trade Unions of Republika Srpska (RS) announced the news about the high level of dissatisfaction of teachers with their workplaces, which was shown by a survey conducted by the Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture of the RS.

The Confederation of Trade Unions of Montenegro reported on the signing of the first branch collective agreement for seafarers on ships in international navigation. The contract defines the minimum living and working conditions on board, as well as the lowest guaranteed salary.

The Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro reported on the eight-day strike of workers at the Post Office of Montenegro at the beginning of October 2023. The strike was successfully concluded with an agreement, which agreed to increase salaries of at least 100 euros each, as well as the payment of salary compensation for the period of the strike to all workers who went on strike.

The Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia has published news about the collective bargaining policy drawn up by the Trade Union of Education, Media and Culture of Croatia (SOMK). It is an internal document that defines substantive priorities in negotiations, the manner of dealing with employers, as well as procedures for involving members during negotiations.

The Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Macedonia published news about the Memorandum of Cooperation signed by the Hospitality and Tourism Union (SUT) with the Croatian Tourism and Service Union (STUH). The agreement between the two unions enables SUT members who come to work in Croatia to obtain the legal and union protection of STUH.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia reported on its appeal for a 78% salary cut for government officials. In the appeal, the government is asked to “apply the already established principle of passing laws to the detriment of workers, without extensive consultation and dialogue”, as is done when it comes to other workers.

The Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia reported on the changes to the Labour Relations Act, after negotiations that lasted almost a year. Two European directives, on transparent and predictable working conditions and on the balance of work and private life for parents and guardians, have been incorporated into the law.

The Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia (CATUS) announced the news about the public session of the CATUS Council in an expanded composition, held on October 26, 2023, in front of the Assembly of Serbia. The session made requests for salaries that workers and their families can live on normally, by signing collective agreements in all activities, improving social dialogue and abolishing the penalisation of early retirement.

The Confederation of Trade unions “Nezavisnost” announced the news about the mass demonstrations of educators in several cities held on September 26, 2023. The protesters demanded an increase in salaries and the general socio-economic position of educators, as well as an end to the long-term collapse of the education system.

Author of the summary: Darko Šeperić – executive secretary for public policies, projects and education (Editorial board of The voice of the Workers – VoW)