Full salary requests to fall under alternative procedure – Here's what amendments to the Law on Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes bring

From now on, employees in Serbia will be able to request the payment of full salaries and earnings from the employer through a procedure for peaceful settlement of labor disputes, without having to file complaints to the court, and the same is true for the employees in the public sector who are paid salaries.

The solutions envisaged in the Draft Law on the Amendments to the Law on Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes, which is on the agenda of the current session of the National Assembly of Serbia, enhance the competence of the Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes of the Republic of Serbia to full salaries and earnings.

This wasn't the case until now, as the Agency used to be in charge of determining the obligation of the payment of a salary up to the amount of the minimum wage, and employees needed to initiate court disputes in order for the remaining amount to be paid to them.

The expansion of the Agency's competence to include the full salary payment disputes means that state clerks, that is, all employees in the public sector, will have the right to raise the question of the payment of their salaries, compensations and other earnings.

Furthermore, the Agency's competence now includes the settlement of disputes regarding other earnings, such as severance payments. The amendments waiting to be adopted at the National Assembly of Serbia also envisage the expansion of the Agency's competence to determining whether the union is representative in collective labor disputes and to disputes concerning the determining of the minimum service during a strike.

The amendments also envisage that the questions of working hours and the length of the the annual leave be matters of individual labor disputes in the future, and it is especially emphasized that the arbitrator's decision is a writ of execution. A procedure for determining the eligibility of the conciliator and the arbitrator is also envisaged. The amendments extend the deadline for the other side in the dispute to state whether it wants a peaceful settlement of the dispute at the Agency from three to five days.

The role of the conciliator in the process of collective bargaining is specified. The conciliator provides help to the participants for the purpose of preventing a dispute. The purpose of this provision is for the conciliator to get involved only in case there's a chance a dispute might arise during the bargaining.

The provisions on the sides in a disputes in activities of general interest have been updated and they are now obliged to a peaceful settlement of collective disputes in cases of the employer's obtaining the right to determining the representativeness of the union, as well as in defining the minimum service under the law.

In activities of general interest, the sides oblige to file a proposition for the initiation of the procedure of a peaceful settlement of a labor dispute within three work days of the occurrence of the dispute, and not three days.

Regarding the authorization of the conciliator in a procedure in case the sides fail to agree on the recommendation, the current solution, under which the conciliator can propose a recommendation to the parties in the dispute, has been changed. The conciliator can now propose a recommendation no later than three days from the closing of the dispute only at the request of one side.

The agreement on the settlement of the dispute can be made on the basis of the recommendation or independently of it.

It is also specified that, in case the sides make an agreement, the agreement becomes the basis for making an amendment to the collective contract or can act as a writ of execution. Considering that collective disputes, due to their complexity, often last for more than 30 days, the period prescribed by law, it is also proposed for the deadline to be able to be extended by another 30 days at the request of one of the parties to the dispute.

When it comes to disputes concerning mobbing, the practice shows that an agreement is the only way for a successful settlement of a dispute over workplace discrimination and abuse. The proposed amendments envisage for the procedure at the Agency to end only if such an agreement is made. Otherwise, the procedure is terminated and the parties to the dispute are sent to solve the dispute at a court under a special law regulating the matter. An important new feature in the Law is the possibility of valuation (earnings and salaries), that is, of the parties to the dispute hiring a court expert if they wish to.

Unlike the services of arbitrators and conciliators, which are free for the sides in the dispute, the costs of hiring a court expert are handled by each of the sides.

Representatives of all three social partners worked on the amendments. In addition to trade union representatives, the work group consisted of representatives of employers and the Government of Serbia. Aside from the amendments, the adoption of an Ethical Code of Conciliators and Arbitrators, as well as the introduction of official identity cards is also planned.

Republička agencija za mirno rešavanje radnih sporova Beograd

Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes

Law on Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes

labor disputes

competence of the Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes

expansion of competence of the Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes

severance payment

collective labor disputes

conciliator in labor disputes

agreement on settlement of a labor dispute

mobbing

mobbing disputes

collective contract

arbitrators

Ethical Code of Conciliators and Arbitrators