Responsibilities

In cases of individual labor disputes, disputes regarding termination of employment contract, working hours; exercising the right to annual leave; remuneration/salary payments, remuneration/salary compensations and minimum wages in accordance with the law; payments of compensation for meals during work, for commuting to and from work, annual leave allowance and other compensation of expenses in accordance with the law; payments of severance pay upon retirement, jubilee awards and other benefits in accordance with the law; cases of discrimination and harassment at work.

In the cases of collective labor disputes, disputes relating to the conclusion and/or amendment of a collective agreement; administration of collective agreements as a whole or of its individual provisions; application of a general document regulating the rights, obligations and responsibilities of employees, employers and trade unions; exercising the right to organize and act as a trade union and exercising the right to determine the representativeness of the trade union with the employer; strike; exercising the right to information, consultation of employees and their participation in the management, in accordance with the law; determining the minimum work process, in accordance with the law.

Mission

To provide for labor and legal certainty, improve social dialogue, harmonize relations among social partners.

Goals

Free and efficient access to justice, in which the parties end the dispute within 30 days, in a professionally conducted procedure.

To take some burden off the courts, which will enable a fair trial within a reasonable time, as one of the conditions for joining the EU, which is also in the interest of the citizens of Serbia.

To improve social dialogue, with the assistance of an impartial and professional conciliator, who helps the social partners to concord mutual relations and reach a solution acceptable to all.

To prevent and reduce of the number of strikes, which is achieved through active, quality and timely cooperation of the Agency with the social partners, in order to overcome the issues.

Vision

The leading institution for concordance of labor relations and guardian of social peace and the right to decent work.

Director

Article 9 of the Law on Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes stipulates that the work of the Agency be managed by the Director. The Director is appointed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia. If the parties to the dispute do not agree on the conciliator or arbitrator, the director of the Agency shall appoint him/her by a decision. The Director of the Agency shall decide on the exemption of conciliators and arbitrators upon notification of the conciliator, i.e. arbitrator and at the request of the party to the dispute, within eight days of learning of the reasons for exemption. Based on the decision on the selection of conciliator, i.e. arbitrator, the Director of the Agency passes a decision on entry into the Directory of Conciliators and Arbitrators. Civil servants and employees report to the Director for their work.

Dr Ivica Lazović was appointed to the position of Director of the Agency by the Decision of the Government, following a competition. He completed his studies at various levels at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, the Faculty of Political Science and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He holds a PhD degree from the Faculty of Political Science in the field of human resource management in public administration, and a master's degree in administration and management from the same faculty. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade and the Faculty of Philosophy, majoring in sociology. In addition to formal education, he completed several international trainings, the most important of which are the one-year specialist course of the prestigious French National School of Administration (ENA-École nationale d'administration) and the three-year training program of the Swedish Institute of Public Administration (SIPU International), with trainings in Stockholm. He has participated in numerous other professional seminars, trainings, workshops, conferences organized by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Monash University of Melbourne, Alternative Academic Education Network, Belgrade Open School, Center for Management, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, PwC Academy, Jean Monenet, SIGMA, OECD, etc.

He has gained his work experience as a professional civil servant since 2003 in the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Human Resources Management Service, Ministry/Office for Kosovo and Metohija and Republic Agency for Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes, where he was Deputy Director until 2021 when he was appointed the Agency Director.

Biography of Ivica Lazović