Serbia Accused of ‘Legalizing Exploitation’ Under Seasonal Work Law

In July 2018, Azmi and dozens of his countryman started a strike on the controversial Belgrade Waterfront project, an ambitious state-backed redevelopment project in the Serbian capital conducted with investors from UAE.

The employer, from Turkey, who was a subcontractor for the Serbian company Gradina, hired for the project, did not pay them their salaries for several months.

However, without the support of their own embassy and with two firms involved transferring responsibility onto each other, the workers returned home with empty pockets.

"The Turkish company that formally hired us has been shut down, so we could not even go to court," Karadas told BIRN.

In July 2018, Azmi and dozens of his countryman started a strike on the controversial Belgrade Waterfront project, an ambitious state-backed redevelopment project in the Serbian capital conducted with investors from UAE. Photo: Insajder/Printscreen

This case of the exploited Turkish workers is far from an isolated one.

There have been numerous reports of exploitation of foreign workers in Serbia, mostly from Turkey, but also from India, China and other countries. The Serbian state, however, takes little care of Serbian citizens' own working rights, let alone those of foreigners.

Instead of tightening up the control of labour rights violations and illegal work, the government plans to loosen the hiring rules for employers, practically legalizing no-contract work in construction, and making violations harder to prove, experts and unions claims.

The Social Affairs Ministry is preparing changes to the already controversial Law on Simplified Hiring in Seasonal Work, expanding its use from the agricultural sector to construction sector, among some others....