Mihajlovic: Introducing order in road maintenance companies

BELGRADE - The adoption of the draft law to ratify the International Labour Organisation's Convention concerning Labour Clauses in Public Contracts will introduce order into road maintenance companies, primarily in terms of employee safety, Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic said on Tuesday.

Presenting the draft law to the MPs, Mihajlovic said that the Autonomous Union of Road Maintenance Workers of Serbia requested back in 2006 that the parliament should ratify the Convention concerning Labour Clauses in Public Contracts (Convention 94).

This shows that the employees in road maintenance companies want order to be finally introduced in the work of their companies, the minister said.

She explained that the Convention would be useful in closing contracts with the state and local self-governments, or public bodies as one contractual party, adding that all those who adopt the document would take on the responsibility to meet their obligations toward employees.

"This means that salaries will have to be paid regularly, road safety will have to meet the standards, while employees must not be moonlighting," Mihajlovic said.

According to the Convention, this clause applies to all employees regardless of whether or not a company is registered in the Serbian Business Registers Agency, the minister said.

Mihajlovic noted that the companies without registered employees will hardly be able to take part in the contract where the government appears as the investor.

During a break of the parliament session, Mihajlovic told reporters that black and white lists for road maintenance companies would be drafted in a month.

Before that, in about two weeks...