The Kosovar government’s 2023 Legislative Program states that a bill to amend and supplement the existing Labor Law would be sent to the Kosovo Assembly on June 30, 2023 for further processing. This seemed promising, considering that the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare started the process of amending and supplementing this law back in 2012.

Since then, successive governments, for various reasons — including the lack of political stability — have failed either to push forward the adoption of a new labor law or to improve the current law, which was ratified in 2010. This can be attributed to the difficult circumstances in pre-war Kosovo and state-building challenges in the post-war period.

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was established after the war, and labor relations were initially regulated by the UNMIK Regulation on Basic Labor Law. Employment contracts, prohibition of discrimination and annual leave were addressed by this law, but its regulations were limited.

The Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo were established in 2002. These institutions sought to leverage their legitimacy in creating a new labor law, but obstacles ranging from high financial costs to an unsustainable economy made this difficult. After many attempts, the Assembly of Kosovo approved the Labor Law under the government of former Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi in 2010.

Labor relations in Kosovo have been regulated by this law for the last 13 years, during which time it has not been changed. The Labor Law was meant to be presented during the Assembly’s session on June 30. However, as the year draws to a close, the government, despite including the review of the legal framework for workers’ rights in its Governing Program, has not fulfilled either the program or its legislative agenda.

New circumstances, outdated law

In principle, legislators should be attentive to changes in the economy and ensure that the approved laws effectively serve citizens and respond to their broader social and economic needs.

The Labor Law entered into force two years after Kosovo declared independence. Everything was different. Over the last 13 years, the socio-economic situation in the world and in Kosovo has changed radically. Many of these changes directly affect workers, their relationship with employers and overall position in the economy and society.

The economic crisis of 2008, one of the biggest and longest in history, caused substantial problems for workers all over the world. The economic crisis significantly impacted weak economies such as Kosovo’s, particularly because Kosovo is closely linked to Europe and the diaspora brings in hundreds of millions in remittances annually.

In three years between 2012 and 2015, more than 130,000 Kosovars migrated to Western Europe, mainly for economic reasons. Interestingly, despite the economic crisis in Europe, remittances to Kosovo increased even during the years of recovery, showing Kosovars’ growing need for financial support.

The period from 2017 to 2019 was characterized by higher and more stable economic development. According to World Bank data, the Kosovar economy recorded growth of 4.4% in 2017, 4.2% in 2018 and 4.4% during 2019. 

However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused one of the most significant and multifaceted economic challenges in modern history. This challenge also exposed pre-existing shortcomings in the labor market and gave rise to new needs. As the economy ground to a halt due to strict restrictions, many workers lost their jobs and were left with little or no support from businesses and public institutions.

Among those most affected were workers in the informal economy, who were further disadvantaged by not having access to emergency packages, even though these were criticized for not meeting citizens’ needs. This should have served as momentum for changes in the legislative approach to workers’ rights.

The consequent disruption in the production and supply chain led to an increase in market prices, directly affecting businesses. Meanwhile, workers were affected on two levels. On one hand, opportunities in the labor market narrowed due to the challenges that businesses faced. On the other hand, inflation reduced purchasing power.

Inflation continued to increase even after the pandemic due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kosovo was particularly affected due to its dependence on imports. According to data from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, inflation almost reached 12% in 2022. The increase in prices continued throughout 2023, with inflation now around 4%.

These recent events highlight the need to update labor laws to meet evolving needs and in accordance with European Union (EU) norms and legislative principles.

Compromising quality

In Kosovo, there are approximately 350,000 workers across the public and private sectors. Workers play a crucial role in driving business development and economic growth. As the dynamics of the workforce changed and Kosovo faced events that challenged the general position of workers, there were no substantial improvements in workers’ rights at the institutional level.

Before the pandemic, a number of civil society organizations (CSOs) drafted a high-level proposal for the Labor Law. If enacted into law, the proposal would address some of the problems that workers face and would align with the principles and directives of EU legislation, a legislative framework to which Kosovo aims to adapt on its way to European integration.

The directives provide legal protection for many aspects of employment, including the contractual relationship between employer and employee, measures that encourage the improvement of safety and health at work for pregnant workers, those recently postpartum or breastfeeding as well as addressing working hours, collective redundancies and more.

The draft proposed by the CSOs provides a comprehensive regulation of labor rights. This is also evident in the volume of articles it contains — the proposed draft contains 235 pages and the current law is only 29 pages.

In recent years due to the development of the information technology sector and the impact of pandemic restrictions, the number of employees who work online — also known as working from home or working remotely — either for local companies or for companies abroad, has significantly increased. Companies often outsource their work to other countries to save money on employee wages. Instead of hiring workers in their own country, they hire people in other countries where labor costs are lower.

The law proposed by the CSOs addresses remote work in a separate article. The current Labor Law lacks any provisions to safeguard the rights and interests of this category of workers. The existing law is outdated, emphasizing the need to draft a new law instead of making superficial changes to the current one.

In 2019, the EU integrated The Work-life Balance Directive into its legislation. This directive aims to improve various aspects of the work-life balance such as the right to request flexible working arrangements for parents and carers. It also seeks to address inequality for women in the labor market. One of the measures of this directive is the introduction of paternity leave, which provides fathers with the right to take at least 10 days off from work around the time of their child’s birth, a right that is absent in Kosovo’s existing labor law.  

The proposals from the CSOs also go in this direction. Despite this, the government’s current approach seems to not foresee major changes and focuses on making adjustments to the existing law through the amendment procedure. This process, as outlined in the regulations, does not allow for substantial changes to the basic law.

The government anticipates that the changes will be dedicated to improving the conditions of maternity leave and paternity leave. While these would be welcome changes, they would not adequately address the needs of other groups of workers affected by this law.

This approach diminishes the hope that workers and CSOs had for a new labor law. The government seems to be heading towards making major compromises with the quality of the labor law and is losing the opportunity to make a law acceptable to all interest groups.

While the government does not want to pursue a process that would result in the creation of a new labor law, it has also not made progress toward amending the current law, a proposal it put forth.

These delays affect workers. While this issue drags on, miners at Trepça have gone on a hunger strike to demand regular wages, health insurance and better working conditions. The union of technical workers at the University of Prishtina, the Student Canteen and the Municipality of Prishtina have also announced union actions for their demands.

Given these circumstances, an entirely new law is necessary. For Kosovo to improve workers’ rights and promote a healthy social dialogue, it needs a comprehensive law that considers the demands of different interest groups. Procrastination and superficial changes will likely lead to new problems which Kosovo’s workers will have to deal with for a long time.

Feature Image: Atdhe Mulla / K2.0.

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