General Collective Agreement has no legally-binding effects
The Labor Law No.03/L-212, which went into effect in 2010, and which aims at creating a functional legal, comprehensive and sustainable legal foundation for working relation, contains respective provisions which also refer to the collective agreement, without imposing legal obligations for its implementation on the enterprises operating in Kosovo.
Article 90, item 5, of the Labor Law clearly stipulates that the Collective Agreement is binding only for those employers and employees who commit to implement the obligations deriving from such Collective Agreement, thus making it clear that the discretion for implementation of such agreement is a matter of the free will of employers and employees.
Also, Article 4 of the Labor Law, provides that the provisions of the collective contract, internal employers act and the labor contract should be in compliance with the provisions of this law, while in the current situation, the obligation for implementation of the collective agreement is not legally binding.
AmCham also reconfirms its stance that no organization, or signatory party of the General Collective Agreement, can enter into legally-binding agreement on behalf of third parties, without having their initial approval.
In this regard, the General Collective Agreement signed in 2014 should not provide any grounds for prosecution or punishment of the private sector companies, which have not given their consent for such an agreement.
In order to avoid any ambiguity or contradicting interpretations, the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, calls on the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare to render an official opinion and to clarify the legal grounds for general collective agreement, baring the institutional responsibility for interpretation of the Labor Law provisions.
