WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
Ilustration: Studio Permanent
From daily conversations with the family circle, society, but also from personal experience and beyond, I have often heard different stories and experiences, in most cases not good regarding the work conditions in the private sector. What is spoken and heard most often is the lack of conditions such as: low wages, lack of contracts, lack of safety in the workplace, lack of health insurance. Based on different data, experiences, people’s confessions, different interpretations, it turns out that all these are still a problem in the private sector and people face all these and almost no one is accountable for the violations of workers’ rights.
Although the private sector has an important role due to the great opportunities it offers for employment, the lack of working conditions leads people to seek more jobs in the public sector. In an article published in 2022 by Sbunker, The Kosovar Paradox: high unemployment and lack of workers states that: “According to a survey by the Institute for Economic Research (INKE), 75.8 percent of respondents want to work in the public sector, a salary is mentioned as one of the strong reasons why they love the public”. Although, in addition to the low salary, workers in the private sector are often forced, with or without an agreement between the parties, to work overtime, and in most cases they are not compensated for the overtime pay (and unfortunately I have this experience personally when I no longer hours were paid when I worked overtime) and although it is not just me as a case, because we have heard these bitter experiences before and still continue to hear them.
According to a 2022 publication by Sbunker, it appears that: “From KAS data it is proven that private sector workers are paid the least. Based on the statistics of 2020, 342 euros is the net salary in the private sector, while in the public sector the net salary is 552 euros”. And based on these data published by the Statistics Agency of Kosovo, it shows that the salary is one of the reasons that pushes people to look for work in the public sector, but also the lack of employment contracts. However, even though there was a positive side to the increase in the minimum wage, this does not deny the fact of improving working conditions in the private sector. But the question arises as to how much these issues are addressed and are they taken into account?! Although there are cases when all these issues are addressed and maybe in some cases they can even be taken into account, still what made people silent and not address these issues is that their voice is “silenced”, also by taking into account the non-functioning of the laws, the lack of organized unions, the lack of proper control by the inspectors and the lack of responsibility, made the situation to be as it is in the private sector and the workers in the face of these violations of their rights remain silent in most of the cases.
What is important is for state bodies to implement laws, to have activated trade unions, and this would consequently affect the improvement of workers’ well-being, with the improvement of working conditions, people’s lives would improve, and this would also affect in the socio-economic aspect of the country, which consequently affects the development of the country. Although this article reflects only a few points of the state of conditions in the private sector, let this be a call to the responsible institutions to listen to the voice of the workers and take precautions, because it is the only way for all of us to enjoy a better well-being!
About the author: Melisë Mustafa, from Prishtina, is a student at the University of Prishtina in the Sociology Department.
This grant is supported by Austrian Development Agency
