Ministry of Agriculture and National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) have introduced a new electronic system for the online application of the seasonal workers on today’s conference held in the SKIP Center and organised within the “Povećanje prilika za zapošljavanje sezonskih radnika u poljoprivredi” project. It is available on the new online platform (portal www.sezonskiradnici.gov.rs). From now on, the procedure of registering and unregistering employers requires less than 10 minutes, while all the employees registered this way have the right to pension and disability insurance, as well as to insurance in the case of an injury at work! In addition to the President of the Government of the Republic of Serbia Ana Brnabić and the Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimović, the Minister of Labor and Employment Zoran Đorđević, the Ambassador of Germany Tomas Schieb and the Director of the Tax Administration Dragana Marković attended the presentation of the project. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić has said that the new system will allow the employees all the rights and that it will provide additional revenue for the budget of as much as 15 million euros, soon! – We estimate that in the next five years this will mean an additional 15 million euros in revenues for the country and budget, and also, greater safety for both farmers and people who work as seasonal workers in agriculture – said Prime Minister Brnabić. She expects that, from February, registration of seasonal workers in agriculture will also be possible via the mobile phone, and by the end of 2019, this way of application should be available to the construction and tourism sector workers, too. Talking about the aforementioned project, the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, pointed out that it is a good example of the fundamental reform in the system, good teamwork, an indicator of government commitment to the digitalisation of the administration, as well as an effective method for combating the shadow economy. – You can not have people who work and not have the right to pension and disability insurance – Prime Minister Brnabic said. Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimović emphasised that last year only 3.585 people in agriculture were legally involved, although in Serbia there are at least 350,000 agricultural holdings that are engaged in agriculture every day. “We had disgruntled workers who did not have any rights other than the right to compensation, but if some injuries have had happened… Everything was in the black zone, and in agriculture, injuries are happening almost every day,” Nedimović said, expressing satisfaction that this will come to an end. Minister of Labor Zoran Đorđević said that the platform is the result of an entire government that wants to fight the shadow economy. “We took care of these workers who were on the list of the National Employment Service (NES) that they do not lose the status and the benefits they had, as well as the social assistance. We were looking to provide them with the opportunity to exercise their rights, to have the right to a pension … ” said Minister Djordjevic. In order to suppress the shadow economy and protect the rights of a large number of informally employed workers in the agricultural sector, the Government, in cooperation with NALED and with the support of the GIZ, launched a reform of the system of workload of the seasonal workers in agriculture through the adoption of a new systemic law. The implementation began in January 2019, as well s the production of the platform for simplified registration of workers. According to the Tax Administration data, in 2017. only 3,585 seasonal workers were engaged in agriculture. Almost 95% of seasonal workers in agriculture are working illegally without any contract, which means they do not exercise rights from being employed such as the right to social and retirement insurance, and insurance against injuries at work. Monthly expenses of employers for taxes and contributions per seasonal worker are on average 6,000 dinars (300 dinars per day).
