Labour Law Didn't Bring Much Good: Public Sector Representatives Drafted It in the Name of Workers

(Patria) - Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina celebrate May 1st - International Labour Day tomorrow. Many will be working on this significant holiday, primarily for workers in BiH. In their congratulations, everyone wishes for more new jobs, a better standard, and social security for workers and their families, but the reality is far from that.
 
The new Labour Law in the FBiH was passed in 2016. Amendments were also made, but although positive effects of the implementation of this Law were announced, there is little for workers to boast about.

"Three years after the Labour Law in the FBiH was passed, we can see very few positive changes in the labour market in the FBiH," says Mersiha Beširović, president of the Trade Union of BiH (STBiH) in a statement to Patria.

The STBiH's position even before the law was passed was that what the Law stipulates and what workers experience daily in their workplaces in the real sector are rarely identical.

"In light of the discussion about working on holidays, which we highlighted as an issue that should have been included in this law when we don't have a Holiday Law in the FBiH, this is, in our opinion, the biggest flaw.

It is good that mobbing has become part of the Labour Law in the FBiH, and our practice shows, for example, that in the past two years, the number of mobbing cases in the trade and services sector has truly decreased," notes Beširović.

Nevertheless, the biggest flaw, warns Beširović, is that the Law is quite general, and essential matters that workers in the real sector live by have been left to collective bargaining, and everyone knows how that functions in the real sector.

"The Law was drafted in the name of workers by public sector representatives, and they made compromises at the expense of their colleagues and colleagues from the real sector. In my opinion, that is the fundamental flaw of this Law," states Beširović.