WILL THERE BE NEW PAY CUTS AND LAYOFFS AND WHY WILL WAGES BE HIT HARDER THAN JOBS

2. July 2020.

Leskovac - The crisis has seriously affected Serbian companies financially. This was confirmed by more than half of domestic companies (54 percent) in the latest research of the Union of Employers of Serbia and the International Labor Organization.

There are still redundancies, mostly for employees working on a temporary basis, while a new wave of salary reductions is expected as of July.

As it was estimated, small companies have the most problems, especially those with up to 10 employees.

“Many of them have already reduced salaries, usually in the range from 10 to 20 percent, and there were also businessmen who had to use more drastic cuts – those up to 30 percent. Many companies fired people at the same time, and according to official data, about 15,000 workers lost their jobs in the period from March to mid-June," the “Blic” daily reports.

The latest official data show that salaries are already lower. Although salaries in the public sector have not been reduced, the average April salary is lower than the March one by about 750 dinars, and that is the price of consequences for the private sector and the introduction of emergency measures that practically froze the entire economy.

Greater reduction of salaries and mass layoffs were undoubtedly prevented by state measures or the payment of minimum wages. The state will pay the last 30,000 dinars per worker on July 7, and that is the key moment when a large number of companies will have much less money for salaries.

According to Olivera Jović from the Association of Entrepreneurs of the City of Leskovac, the crisis is already manifesting itself in small and medium-sized enterprises, of which 80 percent have been left without any income and have been forced to close or temporarily close their shops.

Source: South Serbia News and Coordination Body