Balkan Private Sector Workers Hardest Hit by Coronavirus Fallout

Labour inspectorates say they do not have the resources to look into a spike in reported abuses.

Early indications in some countries point to layoffs in the thousands. Public sector workers, for now, appear safe, but not necessarily their wages.

"Workers on fixed term contracts, also freelancers, are most vulnerable, but many others face hardships and various violations of their rights too," said Darko Dimovski, head of the umbrella Association of Trade Unions in North Macedonia.

"Employers are now tempted to pressure workers or use gaps in the existing laws to get rid of the workforce more easily."

An empty farmers market in Belgrade: Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Forced to take unpaid leave

The complaints are the same up and down the Balkans:

In Bulgaria, a man who declined to be named told BIRN that he and dozens of co-workers had been forced to take unpaid leave.

"Whoever doesn't agree with being put on unpaid leave will simply be laid off permanently," he said. "That's technically legal but the decisions are made under pressure"

"People agree to this so they don't lose their income indefinitely. I signed my unpaid leave for the same reason."

It's a similar story in the service sector in Turkey, where a man in Istanbul said he too had been forced to take unpaid leave.

"I choose to lose my income for an unknown period of time in order to have a job when everything will be back to normal," he told BIRN on condition of anonymity.

In North Macedonia, a single mother in the capital, Skopje, said she had been forced to stay at work despite an order issued by the government granting paid leave to all parents with no other options for childcare.

"When I mentioned...

Continue reading on: