Budapest, 10

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Budapest, 10 11 February 2010
PERC PAN-EUROPEAN TRADE UNION COUNCIL
CONFEDERATION OF AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF
SERBIA

• PROMOTING THE RIGHTS OF AND REPRESENTING WORKERS
  ENGAGED IN INFORMAL LABOUR RELATIONS
• ITUC/PERC FNV Project

REPORT ABOUT THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN SERBIA Sanja
Paunovic, M.Sc
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Key Indicators of the Labour Market in Serbia
for the periods 2002 - 2008
Employment (in 000) Unemployment (in 000) Labour force participation rate Employment rate Unemployment rate
2002 3.000 460 56,1 48,6 13,3
2003 2.919 500 55,7 47,6 14,6
2004 2.931 665 66,4 53,4 19,5
2005 2.574 719 65,2 51,0 21,8
2006 2.517 692 63,6 49,8 21,6
2007 2.526 584 63,4 51,5 18,8
2008 2.646 457 62,6 53,3 14,7
Source Statistical Office of the Republic of
Serbia, Labour Force Survey
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INFORMAL ECONOMY IN SERBIA 2008/2009 BASIC
INFORMATION
Unemployment, employment and informal employment
rates in April and October 2008 and 2009
parallel review

April 2008 October 2008 April 2009 October 2009
Unemployment rate 13,3 14,0 15,6 16,6
Employment rate 44,7 44,2 41,6 40,8
Informal employment rate 23,6 23,0 22,2 20,6

• Labour Force Survey
• Informal employment rate
• in October 2009 decreased by 2.4, in comparison
  to October 2008
• in April 2009 decreased by 1.4, in comparison to
  April 2008
• Informal employment presents share of persons
  employed in non-observed (black) sector of
  economy, out of total number of the employed.
  Non-observed economy covers employees in
  non-registered companies, employees in registered
  company, but without any legal working contract
  and without social and pension insurance, also
  including unpaid family workers.

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Control of the labour contract in the Republic
of Serbia

• Informal employment control, by the Labour
  Inspectorate, in 2009.
• 35,733 control over Serbia
• 319,081 workers were controlled
• 5072 workers without labour contracts  
• 3649 workers were returned to the legal channels
  (Labour Inspectorate made employers register the
  workers)
• Labour Inspectorate written 2262 request for
  setting violation proceedings.
• Manny controls were performed by Labour
  Inspectorate and two representative Serbian trade
  unions.

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Formal and informal workers by age group and sex,
Serbia, 2006 Young workers in the informal
economy

• Source ETF, Serbia School-to-work transition
  survey, ETF, Turin

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Formal and informal workers by education and
economic sector, Serbia, 2006 Young workers in
the informal economy
Source ETF, Serbia School-to-work transition
survey, ETF, Turin
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Characteristics of informal and formal
employment
  Informality rate Informal employment Formal employment
Region
Belgrade 31.8 15.6 25.6
Central Serbia 47.1 54.8 47.0
Vojvodina 45.2 29.6 27.4
Location
Other 56.1 55.6 33.3
Urban (city) 33.7 44.4 66.7
Employment status
Self-employed 92.2 37.9 2.5
Employees 26.6 46.4 97.5
Contributing family workers 100.0 15.7
Economic sector
Agriculture 87.0 38.1 4.3
Manufacturing 25.8 17.4 38.0
Services 37.1 44.6 57.7
Job experience (yrs) 18.3 19.0
  Informality rate Informal employment Formal employment
Total 43.3 100.0 100.0
Sex
Women 43.5 40.3 40.0
Men 43.1 59.7 60.0
Age group
15-24 63.2 10.3 4.6
25-54 41.0 75.9 83.2
55-64 46.3 13.8 12.2
Education
Primary or less 65.2 34.1 13.9
Secondary 43.2 59.1 59.3
Higher education 16.2 6.8 26.8
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ITUC/PERC SEE Office Sarajevo CONFEDERATION OF
AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF SERBIATUC
Nezavisnost in cooperation with
CONFEDERATION OF AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF NIŠ
and SWISS LABOR ASSISTANCE

• Round Table
• REPRESENTING RIGHTS OF WORKERS, ESPECIALLY WOMEN,
  ENGAGED IN INFORMAL ECONOMY
• Serbia, Niš, December 7, 2009

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• Round Table
• REPRESENTING RIGHTS OF WORKERS, ESPECIALLY WOMEN,
  ENGAGED IN INFORMAL ECONOMY
• Serbia, Kragujevac, December 23, 2009

ITUC/PERC SEE Office Sarajevo CONFEDERATION OF
AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF SERBIATUC
Nezavisnost in cooperation withCONFEDERATION
OF AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF KRAGUJEVAC and
SWISS LABOR ASSISTANCE
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THE ROUND TABLES IN REPUBLIC OF SERBIA VRANJE,
NOVEMBER 20, 2008BELGRADE, MAY 28, 2009NIS,
DECEMBER 7, 2009 KRAGUJEVAC, DECEMBER 23, 2009

• Participants - The round tables were attended by
  representatives
• Local trade unions (the municipal and county)
• Branch TUs (Agriculture, Metal, Textile,
  Construction, Catering, etc.)
• National Employment Service
• The Labour Inspectorate
• Social Economic Council
• Serbian Chamber of Commerce
• Local medium (TV, radio and newspapers).
• Key topics - Topics that were discussed at the
  Round Tables were
• TUs principles concerning the Informal Economy
• Status of Women engaged in Informal Economy
• Identify and discussed informal economy
  challenges affecting unemployed
• Social dialog as a means to address the IE
  challenge
• Policy if government institutions (participants)
  to reduce IE
• The successful example of the SSS Council
  Smederevo on its efforts in the Informal Economy
  prevention as an eventual model for the other TU
  colleagues within the Republic of Serbia in their
  further joint efforts in the Informal Economy
  prevention.

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Successes of unions dealing with informal economy

• The role of trade unions in Serbia was
• Educational and informative (for all trade union
  members and persons working in shadow economy)
• Affirmative (for formal employment)
• Interactive survey, questionnaire
• Upgrade social dialog - local trade unions,
  government institution (National Employment
  Service and Labour Inspectorate), employers,
  Chamber of Commerce
• Promote cooperation with the Labour Inspectorate,
  Tax Administration, Public Prosecutors Office
  and other institutions in charge of controlling
  the work in the informal economy
• Protection of workers
• Decrease of informal economy
• Induction of informal economy to the legal
  framework
• Means for work was flyers, leaflets, brochure,
  ...

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CONCLUSIONSFROM THE ROUND TABLES Promotion of
rights and representation of workers in informal
economy

• For a successful action in the field of combating
  informal economy, it is necessary to fully and
  thoroughly inform and educate all members of
  trade unions as well as persons engaged in the
  informal economy
• It is necessary to do the networking of trade
  unions in the region and encourage exchange and
  cooperation of experts

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CONCLUSIONS (2) FROM THE ROUND TABLES
Promotion of rights and representation of
workers in informal economy

• run joint initiatives towards the ITUC, ILO and
  other international organizations and apply
  together for obtaining the international projects
  that aim to decrease the volume of informal
  economy
• It is necessary to use the positive experiences
  of some local communities that went further in
  this field (in Serbia -Smederevo)
• Special attention should be paid to strengthening
  and improving cooperation with the media