Member Article

According to recent news reports, the Bosnian Ambassador in Podgorica, Đorđe Latinović, stated that a labour agreement between BiH and Montenegro on temporal employment is due to be signed soon. The main purpose of this agreement being to regulate the status of seasonal workers in the two countries and reduce the possibility of undeclared work.

Ambassador Latinović emphasised the fact that the interest in this agreement is greater on behalf of BiH, since there are many more workers from BiH who are interested in finding a seasonal job in Montenegro, than it is the case the other way around. Statistics further strengthen this claim, as previous years have shown several thousands of seasonal workers from BiH temporarily getting a job in Montenegro, with the majority of these workers hailing from sectors such as tourism, construction, and agriculture.

Another important factor in this regard – especially when looking at the macro/regional implications of this agreement – has been that, in the last couple of years, the Montenegrin government was publishing quotas for the employment of foreign workers and the issuance of corresponding work permits. A few years ago, these quotas went as far up as 23 000, but have been scaled down recently to 16 000 last year and 12 000 for this year. The majority of these seasonal job positions in Montenegro have been filled with workers from Serbia, BiH, Kosovo, Macedonia, with somewhat lesser numbers arriving from Albania, Russia, and Ukraine.

The last update on this issue is that the negotiations on the conclusion of this agreement are in their final stages, and that throughout the process they have been moving in a positive dynamic. An interesting reading on this topic can be found in arecent articlethat was published on our website, according to which, the agreement in question presents a step in the right direction.