Report presentation – Better employment opportunities for seasonal workers in Southeast Europe: Analysis of the situation in Kosovo
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) together with the local partner Democracy Plus (D+), on Wednesday 26th October, held the workshop on the topic “Better employment opportunities for seasonal workers in Southeast Europe: Analysis of the situation in Kosovo”. In this workshop, which brought together representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, the Tax Administration of Kosovo, the Labor Inspectorate and representatives of civil society from Kosovo and Co Plan from Albania, was presented the country analysis of seasonal worker’s engagement in the agriculture sector in Kosovo.
The presentation of the analysis prepared by D+ emphasized that some businesses do not register their workers as they do not see any benefit from this process, on the other hand, the will of the workers to register is also lacking as in some cases their social assistance may be cut off. Also in the legislative framework in Kosovo there is a lack of definition of seasonal workers.
The project manager of GiZ Amira Omanovic emphasized that the need for the formalization of seasonal workers, which are a special segment of the labour market was confirmed by the analysis.
The participants emphasized the need for an awareness campaign for businesses and citizens to be informed about the importance of registering these workers. The importance of the inclusion of seasonal workers in the legislation as well as their inclusion in pension contributions and health insurance was also ascertained.
The project ,,Better Employment opportunities for seasonal workers in Southeast Europe” which is being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) aims to introduce in Kosovo the best practices of the formalization of seasonal workers, making businesses and the workers themselves aware of the importance of formalizing this type of employment and the benefits that derive from this
The Seasonal workers project acts through a multi-level and multi stakeholder approach and will be implemented by GIZ in cooperation with the local partner Democracy Plus (D+), Kosovo.