The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on programme of incentives for youth employment “My first pay” (“Regulation”), which was published in the Official Gazette of RS no. 107 of 14 August 2020 and entered into force on 15 August 2020.

The programme of incentives for youth employment “My first pay” (“Programme”) is implemented for the purpose of training 10,000 young people for independent work and the Republic of Serbia will invest two billion dinars in the Programme implementation.

Employers eligible for Programme participation

Employers from private and public sectors are eligible to participate in the Programme, whereas private sector employers will have priority, notably those from devastated areas (municipalities).

Employers who meet the requirements enlisted in the public call shall have the right to participate in the Programme, namely:

• To have a seat in the territory of the Republic of Serbia;
• To pay taxes and contributions for mandatory social insurance within legal deadlines;
• Not to have been constantly registered for more than 30 days in the debtors’ registry of the National Bank of Serbia for enforced collection;
• To have settled previous contractual and other obligations to the National Employment Service, except for those underway and providing they are regularly settled;
• To have employed mentor in charge of staff training;
• To have technical, spatial and other capacities for training of individuals and to have premises, technical means and equipment that functionally correspond to the number of trainees, as well as to ensure all conditions in accordance with regulations on health and safety at work.

The number of persons that an employer may thus engage is directly dependent upon the number of employees with such employer:

• The employer with up to 5 employees may include one unemployed person in the Programme,
• The employer with 6 to 14 employees may include maximum 2 unemployed persons,
• The employer with 15 or more employees may include the unemployed persons whose number may not exceed 20% of the total number of employees.

The National Service retained the right to limit the number of employers per sector and the number of announced posts per employer that may be included in the programme so as to ensure equal participation of more employers from several different sectors.

Unemployed persons who may apply for Programme participation

The requirements that a person needs to meet in order to be involved in the Programme are:

• To have secondary or university degree;
• To have maximum 30 years;
• To be without previous working experience and/or to have previous experience shorter than the Programme duration (i.e. shorter than nine months);
• To be enlisted in unemployment records of the National Employment Service;
• Not to have been employed with the selected employer in the period of six months before application.

What does the Programme provide to the unemployed persons?

The Programme beneficiaries will be provided with compensation for a period of nine months, and that:

• For programme beneficiaries with secondary degree – RSD 20,000 per month;
• For programme beneficiaries with university degree – RSD 24,000 per month.

The National Employment Service will calculate and pay compensation to programme beneficiaries and pay the contributions for injury at work and occupational disease.

In addition to this compensation, the employers may also pay additional amounts to the Programme beneficiaries at their own expense.

How to apply for the programme?

There is a special website for employer applications, announcement of posts for youth training for independent work and applications of unemployed persons.

Employers will apply through this website by 25 September 2020 and interested participants will apply in the period from 1 October 2020 until 15 October 2020.

It is envisaged that trilateral agreements between the National Service, employers and selected candidates will be concluded in the period between 8 November and 7 December 2020.

Employer obligations

In accordance with the public call, the employers will be obliged to:

• Train the unemployed person during the contractual period;
• Submit to the National Service a report on monthly attendance of persons included in the programme;
• Issue certificates on performed training for particular jobs;
• Enable the National Service to control the performance of contractual obligation;
• Notify the National Service of any changes relevant for contract implementation within 8 days after the change has occurred.

In case of training interruption, the employer may, within 30 days after the interruption, replace the unemployed person with another unemployed from the list of eligible candidates and for the remaining period as defined by the contract extended by the period of implemented replacement.

Therefore, upon Programme termination, the employers will not be have an obligation to employ the persons they used to engage.

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