Agreement on Social Insurance with Quebec Comes into Effect Today – Agreements with Another Three States Planned

The agreement on social insurance between Serbia and the Canadian Province of Quebec comes into effect today, and it regulates the realization of the rights concerning pension and disability insurance, including the rights based on workplace injury and occupational diseases, as well as health insurance.

The director of the Institute for Social Insurance, Zoran Panovic, says for Tanjug that the agreement is very favorable and that it pertains only to Quebec, the Canadian province which has the highest number of Serbian workers.

For them, the implementation of the agreement will mean that their years of service are recognized in both states, that they will receive a part of the foreign pension and that they will have the right to health insurance.

In the future, pensions will be paid from Quebec to Serbia and from Serbia to Quebec and the years of pensionable service will be added together for the workers.

– If, for example, someone worked in Quebec for 10 years and then for another 10 in Serbia, that person could not retire according to the terms in either state, but when the agreement comes into effect, they will be able to add together the years of service and realize the right to pension in both states – Panovic explained for Tanjug.

When it comes to health insurance, according to him, more favorable solutions have been reached with Quebec than those we have with the rest of Canada, because people who go to work to Quebec, while they are working, will have the right to health protection, that is, basic health services, which is not the case with those who work in other Canadian provinces.

A step further has been made too, so the agreement also envisages the possibility of health protection of students while they’re staying in Quebec or studying in Serbia, which the Agreement with Canada, which Serbia has had since 2014, does not envisage.

Health protection pertains only to students, and not their spouses or children, unlike employees, where health protection is also guaranteed to members of their families, of course, if they live together where they work.

– Workplace injury and occupational diseases are covered as well, which means that, if someone is injured at work and gets an occupational disease, they have the right to a compensation from the country where the injury or the disease occurred – Panovic explains.

To exercise their pension insurance rights, people will not have to travel to another country. Instead, they can file a request where they live.

– We have proscribed bilingual forms which are filled out by the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, which they then send to the colleagues in Quebec, who process them, information is exchanged and so are the data necessary for the recognition of the rights – explains Zoran Panovic.

In the foreseeable future, Serbian workers who worked or still do in Azerbaijan, Tunisia or Australia can expect social insurance agreements with those countries.

Tanjug’s interviewee points out that the negotiations with those three countries have been practically finished and that the signing of the agreements by the competent ministries is expected as soon as possible.

– We are counting on having those agreements come into effect, if not this year, maybe next one – Panovic concludes.

He also adds that they are different and that the same level of rights cannot be agreed with every state. For example, the agreement with Tunisia encompasses pensions and health insurance, whereas the agreements with Azerbaijan and Australia pertain only to pension insurance.

Zavod za socijalno osiguranje Beograd

Republički Fond za penzijsko i invalidsko osiguranje

Agreement on Social Insurance with Quebec

Institute for Social Insurance

Pension and Disability Insurance Fund

Zoran Panovic

Quebec

years of service

health insurance

occupational diseases

pension insurance