Independent cultural scene criticises new labour legislation

BELGRADE - Organisations that are part of the independent cultural scene feel that the amendments to the laws on labour, pension and disability insurance, state asset sale and bankruptcy continue the practice of shifting the burden of the economic crisis to the shoulders of the largest, and often the most vulnerable, layers of the society.

"By continuing to impose the responsibility for the catastrophic economic situation in the country on the people themselves, without any actual ideas on how to prevent the country from going bankrupt, the government of Serbia is also stirring dangerous animosity between different groups within the society, declaring them, depending on the political needs of the day, lazy, parasitic or an impediment to the so called reforms and progress," says a statement signed by over 20 organisations and released by Kontekst kolektiv.

They hold that the amendment to the labour law will fail to reduce unemployment, but will make salaries, which are already low, even lower, take away all forms of job security and undermine the freedom to form trade unions.

"If the proposed amendments are adopted, they will be to the detriment of the workers and the entire society," the statement says.

The organisations also cricise the changes to the law on pension and disability insurance, explaining that they will hit not only the pensioners, but also the huge number of families that depened on the small pensions of their eldest members.

Additionally, the proposed amendments to the laws on state asset sale and bankruptcy threaten to shut down the remaining small number of state enterprises that the authorities have not yet destroyed by supporting the tycoon-run economy.

There have also been...