The results of the survey on the position of employees in Serbia (October 2016, N=116) paint a labor-market picture in which dissatisfaction is not reduced solely to the level of earnings, but to a sense that the system does not protect workers. When respondents choose three key reasons that worsen employees’ position, four factors stand out at the top: high unemployment and a surplus labor force willing to work for low pay (25.46%); employers’ behavior (16.56%); the conduct of state bodies in cases of labor-rights violations (15.95%); as well as poor labor legislation (13.80%) and non-enforcement of laws (13.50%). The message is clear: workers feel “squeezed” between market pressure and institutions that do not inspire trust.
The most dramatic indicator is satisfaction with pay. On a 1–10 scale, the median is 2 and the mode is 1, with an average score of 3.12. As many as 46 respondents gave the score 1, while high scores are rare (only 2 respondents gave a 10). In other words, for most participants the survey does not capture subtle differences, but deep dissatisfaction: wages are experienced as insufficient for a normal life, not as something that can simply be “negotiated.”
The assessment of employers is somewhat “better,” but still low. Satisfaction with employers’ compliance with contracts or agreed working conditions has an average score of 4.39, with a median of 4 and a mode of 1. This suggests that some employees have a fair relationship with their employer, but a significant number experience breaches of agreements—or at least a constant insecurity that contracts are respected only as long as it suits the stronger side.
The structure of employment statuses further clarifies the problem: 45.69% are permanently employed (standard employment contract), but there is a high share of non-standard and risky forms: 15.52% work without a contract, and 12.07% work on a freelance basis (service contract/copyright contract). In addition, 21.55% are unemployed. So nearly one in three respondents is either outside formal protection or outside work altogether—which helps explain why “surplus labor” emerges as the main generator of pressure.
The union picture may be the bleakest: only 19.83% are union members, while 55.17% say they do not want to be members. Another 18.10% would like membership, and 6.90% were members until recently. This suggests two parallel stories: some employees do not trust unions, while others have no channel through which to protect their rights collectively—and without collective power, a worker remains “alone” in front of employers and the state.
Methodological note: this was an online survey with a sample of N=116 and is not representative of Serbia’s population.
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