Posting foreign workers into Serbia and the posting act

Posting lets a foreign employer send its own employee to work temporarily in Serbia without a local employment relationship. Article 19 of the Law on Employment of Foreigners requires a business and technical cooperation contract, one year of prior service abroad, and a written posting act, and the assessment runs for up to three years.

Employers usually pick this route for equipment installation, contracted works and transfers of specialists inside a group. It is administratively shorter than a straight local hire, but it carries obligations that a domestic employment contract takes for granted and that here have to be written down.

What the law wants before the file is opened

The National Employment Service assessment under Article 19 rests on four elements, and none of them is a formality.

The first is the business and technical cooperation contract between the Serbian and the foreign employer. It has to exist before the file rather than be drafted because of it, and it has to describe the work the posted worker actually performs.

The second is service. The worker must have been employed by the foreign employer for at least one year and registered for mandatory social insurance there. Someone hired a month before departure does not meet the condition, whatever their trade certificates say.

The third is the posting act. The law lists what it must contain: working conditions, the way pay is provided and its amount, pay compensation, working hours, how annual leave is taken, occupational safety and health conditions, the period of work in Serbia, and the way accommodation, meals and transport to and from work are provided.

The fourth is the return guarantee. Both employers undertake that the worker returns to the foreign employer when the posting ends.

Posting should not be confused with an intra corporate transfer. A transfer assumes one corporate group and an internal transfer act, while posting assumes two separate employers linked by a service contract. The National Employment Service assesses the two situations against different documents, so a file that mentions both constructions goes back for supplement. Decide which basis is correct before the documents are translated, because court interpreter fees are usually the largest single item in preparing the file.

Deadlines, costs and how the file runs

The procedure is electronic, through the Unified Portal for Foreigners. The decision on the single permit for temporary residence and work is taken by the competent unit of the Ministry of Interior within 15 days of receipt of a complete application. The fees are the same as on any other basis: 430 dinars to file and 22,770 dinars on approval, per the tariff published on the Unified Portal for Foreigners.

The practical consequence is that a posting file is not tested against a job advert. The National Employment Service reads the cooperation contract and the posting act, so the burden of proof sits in those two documents.

Where inspection finds the gap

The Labour Inspectorate opens the posting act and compares it with what is happening on site. Three mismatches repeat.

The first is pay. The act states an amount paid in the home country while a cash daily allowance is handed out on site. Article 15 of the Law on Employment of Foreigners obliges the employer to settle all monetary claims in line with labour regulations, including taxes and social insurance contributions.

The second is housing. The act says accommodation is provided but not where, so workers turn up at an address nobody registered. Those obligations are set out in worker accommodation and employer obligations in Serbia.

The third is scope. The posted worker performs work that is not in the cooperation contract, usually because the site changed its plan. For that gap Article 34 of the Law on Employment of Foreigners sets a fine of 800,000 to 2,000,000 dinars for a legal entity, 50,000 to 500,000 dinars for a sole trader, and 20,000 to 150,000 dinars for the responsible person.

Posting works as a basis for as long as the foreign employer really remains the employer. When the job turns into a permanent engagement with the Serbian company, the honest answer is to move to a local employment contract and the ordinary entry route described in the Serbian D visa procedure, not to extend an act that no longer describes reality. The full budget picture sits in the cost of hiring a foreign worker in Serbia, and our employer desk checks the contractual basis before a file is opened.