On the eve of the summer tourist season, which the Montenegrin Government estimates will break all records in terms of revenue, the lack of labor is a pressing problem. In Budva alone, the metropolis of tourism, almost 4.000 seasonal workers are needed during the summer, of which there are not enough on the labor market.
Among seasonal workers, especially the younger population, there is an increasingly present trend of going to the Croatian coast. Those who decided to make that move claim that the employers there offer them more attractive conditions, i.e. higher wages, better accommodation, paid meals.
An additional problem is that this attitude is also shared by seasonal workers from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, so Montenegrin employers are increasingly looking for missing staff in some completely new addresses such as countries in Central Asia - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or even Nepal.
In order to solve this problem, the government is announcing legal changes for the next year that should motivate the local workforce to spend the summer on the Montenegrin coast.
And for this season, employers try to attract seasonal workers in different ways. Since the beginning of the year, several employment fairs have been organized, cooperation has been achieved with secondary vocational schools and colleges, as well as with agencies that provide labor from all parts of the world, and a Viber group has been created where job ads are published.
Restaurateurs and tourism workers claim that the conditions on the Montenegrin coast have improved significantly and that they do not agree with the assessment of low wages.
"The truth is that there is a huge deficit with skilled labor. Montenegro simply does not have enough qualified workforce in the field of hospitality and hotel management. Seasonal restaurants are in a much bigger problem because we, who work all year round, have permanent workers who handle the entire job throughout the year," said a member of the Budva Catering Association. Luka Vuckovic "News".
The Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro (PKCG) told "Vijesta" that the state should provide employers with the ability to find the right workforce for their needs in the shortest possible time and with simple procedures.
They explain that it is necessary to amend the Labor Law in the part of casual work and pass the Law on Student Cooperatives, which would enable more flexible engagement of the local workforce and students as a special category, during the summer season.
"It is necessary to emphasize the simplification and digitization of employment procedures, to create an electronic portal for the registration of seasonal workers, as well as to implement Art. 81 of the Law on Foreigners, which stipulates that when applying for a permit for the seasonal employment of a foreigner, biometric data can be taken at our embassies and consular offices. In this way, a foreigner would come to Montenegro only when he receives a permit for seasonal work, which would shorten the waiting times at the counters and reduce the employer's costs", PKCG explains.
This business organization especially appeals that the introduction of the category "permanent seasonal worker" would alleviate the problem of lack of personnel, because unemployed people would be motivated to retrain and have secure permanent seasonal employment and income throughout the year in accordance with the positive experiences of European Union countries.
"The system ensures financial support and payment of contributions to workers - seasonally and in the period when they are not working. These are persons who have continuously worked for at least six months with the same employer and who will work for the same employer for at least one more season (at least six months)", the PKCG clarified.
The relevant Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare said that together with representatives of employers and trade unions, they are working on amendments to the Labor Law, which concern some of these proposals.
"The deadline for its adoption is the third quarter of 2024. We point out that when creating legal solutions, a constructive social dialogue of all three parties is needed, which will ultimately result in a consensus. This contributes to the creation of a favorable business environment, which ultimately leads to a common goal, which is - a satisfied employee equals a satisfied employer", the ministry stated in its response to "Vijesta".
Montenegro has a very pronounced lack of labor, especially in the hotel, catering and construction industries, which is why around 20 foreigners start legal employment every year, mostly during the season. That is about ten percent of the total number of employees in Montenegro.
The biggest differences between employers' demand and supply on the domestic labor market relate to unskilled or semi-skilled occupations, mostly in catering and construction. The demand for these profiles was 24 thousand and 18 thousand were employed.
So even though vacancies were advertised, the employers could not hire any workers for the positions - lifeguard, pizza maker, bartender, grillman, forklift driver, doorman, courier...
Croatia will import up to 200 foreign workers this year
Croatia, which has lost 10 percent of its population with 3,871 million inhabitants in ten years, could issue up to 200 residence and work permits to foreign workers this year due to a shortage of workers, according to experts.
However, highly educated people do not flock to Croatia as they do to developed EU countries. The most sought-after occupations on the labor market are salesman, waiter, cleaner, cook, nurse, administrative officer, driver, storekeeper, kitchen worker. By the way, last year, 124 residence and work permits were issued to foreign workers in Croatia, mostly to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (36.783), Serbia (19.176), Nepal (12.222), North Macedonia (10.053), Kosovo (8979), and India (7690). , Philippines (5935), Bangladesh (4381), Albania (4257)...
Most foreigners were employed in construction, tourism and catering, and the average gross salaries were from 677, 684 and 691 euros for cleaners, bakers and construction workers to the highest gross salary of 840 euros for cooks. Croatia does not have an immigration policy because the Government only made a decision in December 2022 to establish an Interdepartmental Working Group for the drafting of a draft document on immigration policy, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior, which means that the import of workers is now left to employers and temporary employment agencies and mediation in employment.
Demographers agree that the share of foreign immigrants should not exceed 10 percent because that percentage is considered the upper limit that enables successful integration of immigrants. On the other hand, employers have their own logic, based primarily on the need to make as much profit as possible, with some abusing foreigners and violating regulations that apply equally to domestic and foreign workers.
According to the report of the ombudsman for 2022, a large number of foreigners, most often employed in service activities, construction and agriculture, complained about working without a work permit, non-payment of wages, illegal and unpaid overtime... This is why labor inspectors are intervening. Petar Lovrić, director of the Kadus agency for temporary employment and employment mediation, tells us that the highest demand for workers is in the tourist season, while foreign workers now work almost all year round in construction.
He adds that due to one of the most liberal laws on foreigners in the world, Croatia has become the target of migrant smugglers via Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who take from them up to 10.000 dollars or euros, and then these smugglers even give money to Croatian employers to make fake papers, and when the migrants get a Croatian biometric personal, disappear. He believes that in order to avoid chaos on the labor market, migrant smuggling, illegal work and kidnapping of workers from employers, the state will have to license agencies for mediating the employment of foreigners, and less believe that someone on the Internet through a relative met exactly 100 Indians and brought them to Croatia.
And demographer assoc. prof. Marin Strmota says that now the situation in Croatia with the import of workers, left to the employers, is somewhat chaotic. He is also concerned about the direction in which Croatia is going, which is developing service activities and construction and importing cheap labor. At the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, where he works, he says, there are some foreign students, but he does not notice that too many stay in Croatia after their studies. On the other hand, educated young people from Croatia continue to leave. Croatia does not have an adequate housing policy for the care of young people and families with children in Croatia, and neither does foreign workers.
As an illustration, Strmota cites the story of an acquaintance whose daughter moved to Ireland with her husband and two small children, but not to Dublin due to problems with the lack of accommodation and high prices. The husband started working, and they immediately got a city apartment to use. After the third child, they got the right to a bigger apartment, and after the fourth child and after five years of living in the Irish house, they got the right to use it for some small money. Strmota points out that these people will never return to Croatia, and Ireland got four children and two able-bodied people. "In Croatia, even if we want to keep people who are necessary for the labor market and have the necessary qualifications, I don't know where these people will live, but I see that foreign workers are walking around," he concludes.
BiH: The worker is the jackpot
There are more than 300.000 unemployed people at employment agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but despite this, BiH lacks workers. One of the reasons for the lack of workers is the opening of the labor market of the European Union countries.
According to the research of the labor market in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted by the Federal Employment Agency at the end of 2022, the occupations in deficit this year are salesman, waiter, tailor, locksmith, welder, telephone operator, call center operator, cook, truck driver, bricklayer, CNC operator, carpenter, carpenter, tailor, rebar maker, electrical technician and mechanical technician. There was also a significant demand for auxiliary workers in production and workers for simple jobs.
The owner of a cafe in Sarajevo points out that lately it is difficult to find a waiter, illustrating that it is like the lottery jackpot. He explains that only frivolous people respond to the ad, young people who are supposedly looking for a job, but do not want or will not work.
The restaurateurs point out that it is the state that should listen more to them and small trades and businesses, because the money from various levies and taxes goes to the budget. They also state that the future should be built on tourism, hospitality and hotel industry, and one of the solutions is to remove the working-age population from the office and thus encourage them to work, especially the youth.
The Association of Employers of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina recently requested the holding of an urgent joint session of the Houses of the FBiH Parliament due to the alarming situation on the labor market. They warned again about the growing trend of workers leaving, and the complex and lengthy administrative procedures when importing the missing workforce.
At the end of last year, urgent adoption of amendments to the law on contributions and income tax of the FBiH was requested, which would increase the wages of employees in the real sector, and reduce contributions on the increased amount. The proposals were not even put on the agenda for months. Snow White Köpruner, vice-president of the UPFBiH Executive Board, emphasizes that the problems are multiple. The lack of manpower, he says, is visible both in the cases of qualified and low-skilled personnel, as well as highly qualified personnel. Cooks and waiters are impossible to find, and welders and locksmiths are very few.
For occupations with university education, the greatest demand is for workers from the IT sector (electrical engineers, system engineers, programmers, IT developers, etc.), followed by economists, masters in pharmacy, and mechanical and civil engineers.
A similar situation exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. entity Republika Srpska. The greatest need on the labor market is for occupations of the third degree, namely in the fields of mechanical engineering and metalworking (locksmith - welder, mechanic of mechatronics, pneumatics and hydraulics, metal worker by cutting, toolmaker, mechanic of heating and cooling technology, agriculture and food processing (baker, butcher, agricultural producer, food processor), hospitality and tourism (waiter and cook), traffic (motor vehicle driver), electrical engineering (car electrician and electrician), forestry and woodworking (carpentry) and geodesy and construction (stone mason - ceramist).
Serbia: Masters, masters...
In the records of the National Employment Service in Serbia, there are 427.000 citizens looking for work. Despite this, the situation on the labor market is such that the unemployment rate in the last quarter of last year was 9,2 percent, which is a decrease compared to the annual average of 9,4 percent. In earlier years, Serbia often had double-digit unemployment, and ten years ago that figure could significantly exceed 20 percent.
The reasons for this situation are not only the creation of new jobs, but to a significant extent also the fact that a large number of young people have been moving to the West in recent years, in search of a better standard of living and a more stable environment.
The deficit of workers in Serbia is most pronounced in construction and transport, so the Government of Serbia started concluding interstate agreements on the "import" of workers from Vietnam, Bangladesh and Guatemala. Turkish and Chinese workers on construction sites throughout Serbia have long since become everyday, and Belgraders increasingly see Indians and other foreigners driving buses.
According to data from Infostud, the largest portal for advertising job vacancies in Serbia, the IT sector is still at the top of the list of industries in which it is easiest to find a job, followed by trade, sales, mechanical engineering, administration and catering.
During the last year, employers published the most advertisements for salespeople, drivers, warehouse workers, administrative workers, as well as production workers.
According to surveys conducted by the National Employment Service among employers, in the coming period the greatest need will be for CNC machine operators, drivers, construction workers, welders, carpenters, bricklayers and service workers.
The average salary in Serbia reached 81.000 dinars (almost 700 euros), but a large number of people still work for much less than that, so the median salary is just above 500 euros, which means that every other worker in the country works for less or the same to that amount.
Low salaries in some of the key areas for the functioning of society, such as health care, have for years been causing more and more qualified workers to go abroad, and neither can they be found, nor are adequate replacements found for them, which is why the quality of the services provided is increasingly declining. services in these sectors. In activities that do not require higher qualifications or permits, the solution is to import workers from even poorer Asian countries, which often leads to various incident situations, such as the one with Vietnamese workers kept in illegal conditions in a Chinese tire factory, Indian workers whose employer did not give earnings and could not return to their country or Chinese workers in another factory who were forbidden to have contact with the domicile population.
The government, however, interprets the arrival of foreign workers as an expression of the progress of Serbian society, since it is shown that there are those who are poorer than us.
In addition to importing labor, Serbia resorted to a very liberal law on the so-called leasing of workers and formed a working group that was supposed to develop an action plan and a system of measures to stimulate educated citizens to stay in the country, however, none of that was done.
Instead, the government launched a program to build apartments that it sells at extremely low prices to young people, but exclusively to those employed in security services such as the police and the army, while public calls for doctors, teachers, scientists and other highly educated and deficient people to join the project personnel - remained without reaction from the authorities.
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