• 2014-12-17
• |  Niš

Reform of Inspections for Better Economic Environment and Reduction of Undeclared Work

Third Session of the Working Group XVII of National Convent on EU following the chapters on freedom of workers’ migration, social policy and employment was held in Niš.

Third Session of the Working Group XVII of National Convent on EU following the chapters on freedom of workers’ migration, social policy and employment was held December 17, 2014, in Niš; and the topic was an overall reform of the inspection oversight system and proposals for improvement of the efficiency of labor inspection in fight against undeclared work. 

Sessions was initiated by Center for Democracy Foundation, which is within the Convent coordinating Working Group for chapters 2 and 19. 

Results of the latest research on citizens’ attitudes, conducted by Center for Democracy Foundation, demonstrate that around half of citizens in Serbia has remarks on work of inspection services, from which the largest number are related to unresponsiveness, indifference and slow reactions of inspectors, as well as the lack of field inspections. 

Vidosava Džagić, State Secretary at the Ministry of State Administration and Local Government talked about the Draft Law on Inspection Oversight, stating that the same problems identified by citizens were previously noted by the commercial sector in earlier researches. 

"Employers who implement all standards will be enlisted into category with less risk. The Law is based on prevention”, as pointed out by Džagić. 

Law introduces innovations in the field of inspection networking, planning of oversight, reporting. Coordination with other bodies is also included. Different trainings for inspectors are planned in the forthcoming phases, since according to the State Secretary – relations towards clients must be changed among inspectors. 

Proposal for practical policy “Serbia Without Undeclared Work – More Efficient Role of Labor Inspection in Fight Against Undeclared Work” which basic recommendations are reflected in establishment of a unified information system, which can be accessed by Labor Inspectorate, Central Register of Social Protection/Insurance, misdemeanor courts, other inspections, Business Registers Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia; all this, as well as separate website of Labor Inspectorate should lead not only towards prevention of undeclared work, but so called “shadow economy” as a whole.
 
Proposals for practical policy were supported by: Union of Employers of Serbia, Union “Independence”, local branches of National Employment Agency in Niš and 10 civil society organizations from various parts of Serbia. 

National Convent on European Union (NCEU) is a permanent entity within which representatives of non-governmental organizations, experts, commercial sector, unions, professional associations, public administration, political parties and independent bodies are leading a thematically structured debate on Serbia’s accession to EU. Formation of 21 working groups of NCEU was initiated by more than 20 prominent civil society organizations in order to monitor the negotiations and implementation of the reforms from the 35 negotiation chapters. 

Center for Democracy Foundation has been implementing projects in the area of economic and social development since 2006, with special emphasis on labor rights, consequently we were appointed to coordinate Working Group XVII, which monitors the Chapters 2 – freedom of workers migration, and 19 – Social Policy and Employment. 

Center for Democracy Foundation