Security of work as an indicator of decent work: Normative solutions of countries in the region

Abstract

International Labor Organization set security of work as one of the basic aspects of decent work. In order to achieve the standard of decent work, it is not enough to have appropriate working conditions, it is also important to achieve that employment cannot be easily terminated by the employer and prevent worker from being exposed to financial instability, that is, social insecurity. Bearing in mind the increasing spread of flexible forms of work that often lead to a reduction in the scope of security of work, authors' focus in the paper is dominantly on analyzing the existing problems in the countries in the region regarding the standardization of security of work. The paper analyzes existing solutions in four countries - two which are the members of the European Union (Hungary and Croatia) and two which are not (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro). The solutions foreseen in the aforementioned legislations were compared with the solutions from the Labor Law of Serbia, with the aim of making conclusions regarding the possibilities of improving the normative framework in the period of harmonization with the legal acquis of the International Labor Organization and the European Union. The primary aim of the critical review of legal solutions is to recognize certain trends in the regulation of work relations, to analyze existing relations between employers and workers in terms of the labor contracts forms, rights of workers in terms of termination of employment as well as to conclude whether it is possible to preserve the right to security of work in accordance with its traditional elements, given the current circumstances. Authors based the paper on the initial hypothesis that in the observed countries the forms of work flexibility actively influence the abandonment of the concept of employment security, as well as that the scope and quality of the rights regarding the termination of the employment in the countries of the region are not harmonized and secondly, that it is more favorable for workers to achieve employment security in the countries that are members of the European Union and that do not recognize work outside the employment relationship.

Keywords

• security of work
• indicators of decent work
• employment termination
• dismissal
• workers' right