Employers – take caution: overtime records and heavier fines

Newsletter 101

LABOUR LAW NEWS: EMPLOYER’S DUTY TO KEEP DAILY OVERTIME RECORDS

Please note some important novelties introduced by the Law Amending the Labour Law (“RS Official Gazette”, Nos. 24/2005, 61/2005, 54/2009, 32/2013, 75/2014, 13/2017 – Decision of Constitutional Court and 113/2017), (hereinafter: “Law”), applicable as of 25 December 2017.

Employer’s duty to keep daily records of employees’ overtime work

The Amendments to the Law introduced a duty on part of the employer to duly keep day-to-day records of its employees’ overtime work. These overtime records should also serve as evidence of overtime work at the employer, required along with the already prescribed duty on part of the employer to adopt a decision introducing the overtime work, defining the types of jobs, commencement and duration of overtime.

As a reason for introducing this provision, the legislator has argued that the Labour Inspectorate was unable to determine whether there were any overtime cases at the employer, and that, as a rule, employees are not paid for the overtime work that is not recorded, although the Law on Records-Keeping at Work provides for the duty to keep records of working hours, including the working hours over and above the full-time working hours.

The Amendments to the Law provide for misdemeanour liability in case of failure to keep daily records of overtime work, prescribing fines ranging between 150,000 and 300,000 RSD for the employers as legal entities and between 50,000 and 150,000 RSD for sole proprietors, while the responsible person at the legal entity may be fined between 10,000 and 20,000 RSD.