On March 16, 2020 the Government of the Republic of Serbia passed the Regulation on organization of the employers’ operations in the state of emergency (“Regulation”), which was subsequently published in the Official Gazette of the RS no. 31/2020.

The Regulation provides that during the state of emergency employer is obliged to enable employees to perform work outside the employer’s premises (teleworking and work from home), at all jobs where such work can be organized in accordance with the general enactment and the employment agreement.

If there are no applicable internal rules on remote work, the Regulation provides that employer should pass special individual decision (in Serbian: rešenje) in order to establish working hours and the way of supervising the employees’ work.

If it is not possible to organize the remote work in the specific industries or at the particular jobs, employer needs to harmonize the business operations with the conditions of emergency, namely:

• to arrange shift work, if possible and without requiring additional resources, so that as few employees and other engaged persons as possible can work simultaneously in one room,
• enable all business meetings to be held electronically or by other appropriate means (video link, video call, etc.),
• postpone business travel in the country and abroad, in accordance with the decision of the competent authority on the ban i.e. temporary restriction of entry and movement.

In order to ensure the protection and health of employees, other engaged persons and clients, employer is obliged to provide all general, special and extraordinary measures related to the hygienic safety of facilities and persons in accordance with the Law on Protection of Population from Infectious Diseases.

For employees and other engaged persons who are in direct contact with clients or share a work space with multiple persons, it is necessary to provide sufficient quantities of protective equipment in accordance with special regulations.

In that regard, on March 13, 2020 the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia published on their website the Code of Conduct of the business entities during emergency caused by the coronavirus epidemic (available here). Employers may also consult the guidelines prepared by the World Health Organization (available here).

This article is to be considered as exclusively informative, with no intention to provide legal advice.
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