New Law on Hiring Foreigners - 2,500 job applications approved annually

The National Employment Agency annually approves about 2,500 job applications submitted by foreigners residing in Serbia, it was said at a recent session of the Parliament's Board for Labor, Social and Veterans' Issues, which adopted, in principle, a Bill on Hiring Foreigners.

The proposed law reads that, taking into account that these approvals are exclusively related to employment, there are no comprehensive data about foreigners who exercise the right to work on other bases.

Assistant Minister of Economy and Regional Development Ljiljana Dzuver said that the proposed law uniformly regulated the area of hiring foreigners in Serbia, adding that its adoption would, among the rest, attract foreign investment.

According to her words, the existing law was passed back in 1978, so that many of its sections are out of date, and it does not regulate the cases when foreigners live and work in Serbia and when they are members of managing boards and company owners.

Dzuver presented certain provisions of the proposed law, which stipulate, among the rest, that foreigners who want to work in Serbia must have their stay in the country approved and possess a work permit, whereas certain categories of people, such as diplomats and athletes, will be exempt from the obligation to own a work permit.

As she explained, in case of unemployment, foreign citizens will have the same rights as the citizens of Serbia, and the Law will apply to both foreigners getting hired in Serbia and employers hiring these foreigners.

The Government of Serbia, as the proposer, lists as positive effects of the proposed law the following: full regulation of matters related to the employment of foreigners in accordance with modern trends, and harmonizaton with other positive regulations.

Also, the Serbian government expects the proposed law to enable employment and self-employment of foreigners, exercise of the rights regarding unemployment and other specific rights, limiting of the number of foreigners entitled to work, etc.