Serbia: News on Covid-19 period from the legal perspective

published on 14 April 2020 | Lesedauer ca. 1 Minute

On March 15th, 2020, The Government of the Republic of Serbia has declared a state of emergency and since then many Decrees have been issued. One of the most relevant decision is The Decree on the Organization of Operation of Employers during the State of Emergency from March 16th.

According to the Decree, employers are obliged to resolve the working status of employees and whenever possible allow them to work outside of the premises. If such a solution is not possible due to the nature of the business activity, safety measures must be applied as prescribed by the Decree and the Law on Protection of Population from Infectious Diseases. All business meetings are to be held electronically or by other appropriate means, while business trips remain postponed.

Other important decrees are The Decree on deadlines in Court proceedings during the State of Emergency from March 20th, and The Decree on deadlines in Administrative proceedings during the State of Emergency from March 24th.

 
According to the first one, deadlines for filing appeals and lawsuits, motions for initiating proceedings, as well as enforcement and security proceedings, shall cease to run from March 15th until the end of the state of emergency. When it comes to administrative proceedings, parties are exempted from complying with the deadlines prescribed or determined under the relevant laws, and depending on the nature of the deadline, it will start running again as prescribed.

When it comes to the most frequent questions of financial nature, there are several possibilities to preserve liquidity such as the possibility of interruption of work, i.e reduction of work volume occurred without employee’s fault, alternative ways to reduce working hours, salary decrease and, if conditions are met, to render a Decision and introduce a minimum wage. Aiming to support the private sector, on March 31st, the Government of the Republic of Serbia presented its financial plan, but up to this moment, nothing was made official. However, as it was announced, the benefits of this program (mostly tax-related) shall be reserved for those who haven’t dismissed more than 10% of their employees.