Survey of employee absenteeism presented to German companies in Serbia

Business Support Network (BSN) presented its study on employee absenteeism to HR managers of 24 companies working in Serbia.

The meeting was held in Subotica by the German-Serbian Business Association (DSW), Delegation of German Commerce and Industry in Serbia (AHK) and Infostud company, that hosted the representatives of 24 companies.

The presented study showed the following:

• – Level of absenteeism in Serbia is almost 35% higher than in the other countries of the region covered by the study (Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Slovenia), and is 59% higher than the EU average.
• – Foreign companies in Serbia and some other countries in the region have most problems with absenteeism during the summer season, when the significant number of the employees take sick leave in order to perform agricultural works.
• – Unreformed health system with a high degree of corruption and lack of control of the doctors issuing sick leave documentation is a contributing factor to high absenteeism rates, but also the Labour Law which is still not reformed enough to prevent “epidemic” of false sick leaves in Serbia. It is commonly occurring that doctors give up to 30 days leave due to insomnia, “complications with acute cold”, stomach ache, toothache, etc.