The members of the FIC Working Group for Education and Employment, on October 7, 2020, held a meeting on the preliminary draft of the new Law on Employees’ Council of FBiH. At the meeting, FIC members had the opportunity to submit their comments on the proposed text of the Law, which were subsequently submitted to the FBiH Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, which is the proposer of this law.
The most important differences between the preliminary draft of the new Employees’ Council Law and the existing one are the following:
The main change refers to the harmonization of this Law with the Labor Law of FBiH (ZoR) regarding the conditions for the formation of the Employees’ Council.
It is also envisaged that employees may form an Employee Council for company branches.
The new Law also contains detailed provisions on the manner of electing members of the Employees’ Council, the procedure for electing members has been technically improved, as well as the rights and obligations of the Employees’ Council.
According to the new Law, the employer has the obligation to inform the Council once a year, while according to the current Law, the employer is obliged to inform the Council twice a year.
Regarding employer’s obligation to consult Council, new Law better defines in which decisions the consultation is obligatory.
The novelty is also that the employer is obliged to consider the remarks of the Council, which has not been the case so far.
A novelty is the deadline for submitting comments by the Council in case of declaring a natural disaster, where the deadline is reduced from 15 days to 5 days.
In the case of the employer’s obligation – obtaining the consent of the Council, employer is no longer obliged to obtain the consent of the Council in case of dismissal of an employee if there is a risk of disability is omitted. Then, in the case of dismissal of an employee older than 55, both men and women are equated, which is not the case in the existing Law.
In the procedure of giving consent, the novelty is that if the Council denies consent, the new Law stipulates that the employer may, within 30 days from the date of delivery of the decision, request the court to replace the consent.
In the new Law, the provision concerning the relationship between the Council and the trade unions is unclear, if both bodies exist with one employer. According to the interpretation, this Law refers to the Council if it exists, if it does not exist, then all the rights and obligations from this Law are taken over by the trade union.
The novelty is that the Council now has the right to perform tasks within its competence up to 11 hours a week and this applies to all members of the Council and not just individually.
