Vulin: Labour law amendments will make employment easier

BELGRADE - Serbia's Labour Minister Aleksandar Vulin has said the amendments to the labour law will make it easier to hire new people, and not lay off the existing employees.

"This is a reform law that has to be adopted, and it will be impossible to put our economy back on its feet without it.

We have gained support for this law from all the relevant investors in the country," he told Radio and Television of Serbia on Thursday.

Vulin criticised the decision by some trade unions to stage protests against the amendments.

There will be no layoffs with the adoption of these amendments, but a rise in employment, he noted.

"More than 500,000 jobs have been lost under the current law. No one has an interest to let more people go," he stated.

The minister said he had met several days earlier with representatives of the biggest investors in Serbia, who employ more than 100,000 people, and that they felt they might be able provide new jobs, rather than layoffs.

The employers and trade unions have extremely conflicting views, and the government has tried to find a compromise, he pointed out.

"The trade unions were offered an extention of the collective bargaining agreement this morning, at Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's suggestion. Unfortunately, I received signals that a union is prepared to quit the negotiations, that they think the representation threshold of 50 percent for the unions, which we wanted and which exists in the EU, is too high," he explained.

"Laws are adopted by a parliament majority and so we need to be reasonable and make sure the adoption of reform laws is not accompanied by protests," he remarked.

Photo Tanjug / S. Radovanovic...