The massive violation of the work ban during the May Day holidays in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina caused a sharp reaction from the Trade Union, which warns of the disregard of the law by numerous traders and demands an urgent and strict reaction from the competent inspections.
We are transmitting the announcement in its entirety.
“Prompted by the extremely large number of reports of violations of the Law on Internal Trade FBIH, Article 18, which we received during the May Day holidays, and concerned, not only about the extent, but also the manner in which the ban on working on Sundays and holidays was violated in certain parts of FBiH, STBiH called on the Directorate for Inspection Affairs of FBiH to urgently take the measures prescribed by law and punish violators with the most severe penalties.
Since the adoption of the Law, STBIH has been recognized as a corrective factor, and every week reports about violations of the relevant provision of the Law are sent through STBIH.
Although dissatisfied with the fact that we are witnessing constant and very often repeated cases of violations, we have assumed the role of mediator, not only between workers and inspection authorities, but increasingly also citizens, and we perceive this process as an integral part of the implementation of each Law.
However, during the May Day holidays, the violation of the Law escalated to the extent that not only individual small shops violate the Law, as we have seen in practice so far, but a larger number of establishments and even entire retail chains.
Some business owners are clearly disappointed by the fact that this time the FBiH Government did not comply with their request that the Law be “paused” every time it includes more than 1 non-working day for shops, until the last day before the holiday they kept their workers in suspense by denying them notification about non-working days even though the Law on Internal Trade FBIH is clear and the Minister of Labor and Social Policy FBIH has already informed the public about non-working days on the occasion of the International Labor Day.
After they were finally informed about the non-working days, the workers of certain chains, that is, of certain facilities within a chain, were invited by phone to come to their workplaces on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3. Other chains, on the other hand, immediately announced May 2nd and even publicly, through their info channels, announced work on holidays.
The flagrant violation of the Law is reflected in the fact that the shops are open to customers and that during this process the turnover was duly taxed.
STBIH is very frustrated by the extent of this violation, but also by the way that clearly suggests the unilateral cancellation of Article 18 of the Law by certain trading companies. For this reason, we sent a request to the Directorate for Inspection Affairs of the FBIH for urgent and decisive action in the sense of using all measures permitted by law and imposing the strictest penalties for violators.
We also requested the application of Article 122 of the Law on Inspectional Activities of the FBIH for repeated and continuous cases of violations.
We have been informed by the FBiH Ministry of Trade that the Ministry is also determined to stop this very negative trend and that all actions are being taken to punish violators with maximum penalties.
We asked for special insight and control of the operation of drugstores, whose increasingly numerous existence clearly indicates attempts to circumvent the Law in practice.
According to the information that STBIH receives, drugstores very often do not work after 11 p.m., they do not have the expected number of staff for 24-hour working hours, and this form of registration is, as a rule, used exclusively as a way of working on Sundays and holidays. Through inspection of the traffic, controls in the late hours of the night, the actual situation can be determined and, accordingly, action can be taken in order to stop this trend of evading the law.
Each Law and its application brings with it the challenge of implementation in practice, and STBIH is aware of this, and in accordance with that, we monitor the implementation in the context of a direct participant in the process of passing the Law and an interested party. We are extremely concerned by what we witnessed during these May Day holidays.
We consider such a drastic number of violators of the Law and the manner in which the violation occurred as a direct attack on the Law, as well as the institutions of the FBIH and the rule of law, and in this sense we want to warn all those responsible in this process as well as the public that dissatisfaction with a legal solution must not result in its unilateral suspension.
This is how we enter anarchy. On the other hand, we consider this an injustice and an attack on those employers who respect the law, and in this sense we expect support from the Employers’ Association FBIH and all those capital owners who are in this process in good will and with concern for their workers”, they stated in the statement. Vijesti.ba
