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LABOUR-SERBIA: Now May Day Means Mobbing

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Apr 30 2008 (IPS) - From the days of celebrating workers on May Day, the day now brings reminder of a new practice of mobbing among Serbia’s workers.

For decades in the centralised economy of the communist era, it was the tradition to mark Labour Day on May 1 with festivities and tributes to workers. The tradition was kept alive even through the period of sanctions in the 1990s.

But the transition to the market economy since former president Slobodan Milosevic fell from power in 2000 has introduced the new practice of mobbing – abuse of workers through creation of a hostile environment, humiliating reshuffles, rumours, and negligence. This has caused widespread distress, and driven many to quit their job.

“In the past two years, we’ve surveyed some 12,000 people all over the country, and more than half in this randomly picked sample said they were victims of mobbing,” Aleksandar Ilic, head of the non-governmental organisation Stop Mobbing said at a press conference last week. “The practice is taking on the form of an epidemic.”

Besides this group, another headed by psychiatrist Dragan Milivojevic provides psychological support to victims.

“Tough changes in economic activity and introduction of new practices such as the accent on personal initiative, competitiveness, private ownership, and international companies’ presence has led to substantial changes in the position of the employed,” sociologist Vanja Milankovic told IPS.

Before 2000, Serbs lived a completely different working life. Once employed, they could not lose their jobs, and were guaranteed healthcare and education free of charge. But the turn towards market economy since 2000 led to collapse of state-owned companies, privatisation, and substantially new and unfamiliar rules.

In the changed situation, Serbia officially has 27 percent unemployment. On the other hand, its economy has achieved an unprecedented seven percent annual growth after billions of dollars were invested into now revived and prosperous industries.

Of the two million employed (in a population of seven million), more than 520,000 work in privately owned businesses – domestic or international. Among these, only a third have been allowed to form trade unions, according to independent estimates. As a result many of the employed fear job losses.

A Gallup International study shows that job loss tops the list of fears among 60 percent of Serbs. Some 47 percent said they could lose their jobs in coming months depending on the will of their employers.

“There are five to ten phone calls to us each day, by people who become victims of mobbing,” Aleksandar Ilic told IPS. “They belong to different age groups and all lines of work.”

According to Olga Kicanovic, adviser at the Serbian Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labour Issues, fear of losing their job instigates workers to intimidate fellow workers.

“The ones who are more creative endanger the less creative ones, who turn to mobbing,” Kicanovic told IPS. “Women are particularly targeted, as they are the first to be sacked or forced to leave, and the last to get jobs under the current circumstances. Many mobbing victims are also the young, who have just started their jobs. They are often viewed as competition that might lead to the sacking of someone.”

According to these experts, mobbing is usually ‘diagnosed’ after six months of continuing harassment. The harassment can often be passive in nature, and take the form of non-communication, or the ’empty desk’ syndrome where a worker is faced with nothing to do.

“That is when people are practically forced to leave,” Kicanovic adds. “They suffer from psychosomatic distress and often seek medical help.”

Despite a new labour law adopted in 2005, there is no regulation to deal with mobbing. People only report it to NGOs, or quietly seek medical help – and other scarce jobs.

Only one victim of mobbing has gone to court. The worker, who wants to remain anonymous, is from the Crvenka sweets factory in the northern town Kula. Her case has been going on for two years now.