Employment of Foreigners: a new trending topic in the labour market of Bosnia and Herzegovina



The conference “Employment of Foreigners – Prospects and Opportunities” was held in Sarajevo today.  The conference was organized by the Labour and Employment Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the financial and technical support of the Employment and Social Affairs Platform in the Western Balkans (ESAP 2), a project implemented by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) and financed by the EU.

The conference gathered representatives of public employment services in BiH, employers’ associations and the state and Entity ministries responsible for labour market issues.

The aim of the conference was to exchange experiences on the topic of employment of foreigners in BiH in terms of the existing regulatory frameworks, employers’ needs, labour market supply and the role of public employment services. 

In his introductory address, Mr. Muamer Bandić, Director of the Labour and Employment Agency of BiH, listed the major challenges faced by the labour market of BiH with regards to the recruitment of foreigners. Director Bandić stressed that, on the one hand, we have employers who are in demand of skilled labour force, and on the other, about 360 000 unemployed persons.  Moreover, we have a trend of migration of workers from BiH to other countries in search of better working conditions, as well as a negative demographic trend.  The education sector still fails to respond to the labour market needs at a satisfactory level and this problem will become even more challenging in the future, stressed Mr. Bandić.

Speaking on behalf of RCC, Ms. Amira Ramhorst, Team Leader of the Employment and Social Affairs Platform (ESAP 2) said: “We are glad to have the opportunity to support the Labour and Employment Agency of BiH and thus, to some extent at least, respond to the requests of a very important topic – employment of foreigners in BiH. Today, we have the opportunity to hear in one place the voice of BiH employers, public employment services and other relevant institutions dealing with employment of foreigners in BiH and advance the dialogue among these institutions on such an important topic”.  

Representatives of Entity and cantonal employment services mainly addressed the issues of the procedures and regulatory frameworks related to the employment of foreigners.  The main obstacle to a more efficient implementation of the current regulations is the inconsistency of the regulatory frameworks  between the state and Entity levels, the mismatch between legal deadlines for individual actions and the existence of a large number of people who are not active job seekers but merely register as unemployed to exercise the right to health protection. 

Representatives of employers raised the issue of labour shortages in some sectors, primarily in construction, manufacturing industry and catering.  Employers also mentioned the issue of unreliable unemployment records as these register a large number of people who are not active job seekers, i.e. they either do not want to work or they work illegally and are not available for new recruitments. One of the problems is the fact that the education sector does not respond to the labour market needs which is why employers ask for removal of quotas when hiring foreigners and the introduction of the instrument of labour market testing built on the model of EU Member States from our neighbourhood which will help identify shortage occupations. They also ask for liberalisation of legal solutions for employment of foreigners which would shorten the deadlines and reduce the number of documents required for the issuance of work permits.  Employers share the opinion that the attention should be given to people who are truly unemployed and want to work, but until that happens (which involves  major changes in regulatory solutions), it is necessary to enable employers to hire workers from abroad in industries experiencing labour shortages. 

As potential risks of labour shortages, the participants listed the economic downturn and economic stagnation, as well as a further decline in the possibility of creating new jobs for domestic labour. On the other hand, wage undercutting, the rise in unemployment of BiH citizens and cultural differences in inclusion of foreigners into our society were mentioned as possible risks of an increased inflow of foreign workers.

At the end of the conference, the participants noted that more such expert meetings with an extended circle of participants should be organized in the future to add weight to and solve the issues raised in this conference.