On Monday, 30 October 2023, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) integration team held the second workshop on labour rights in Serbia and the importance of business ethics and communication. The session, held within the Refugees for Refugees (R4R) project activity, aimed to rally refugees and asylum seekers who want to join the labour market in Serbia and get familiar with their rights and business coulture.
The session was conducted by BCHR service advisers Milena Ančić and Andrijana Miljković. Communication standards, the dress code and work attitude, as well as the legal framework in Serbia, differ greatly from those in the countries of origin of most of BCHR’s clients. We wanted to discuss in detail with our clients this issue that is of exceptional importance in the process of their integration.
The first part of the session focused on the concepts of business communication and culture, the rules and tacit standards in the field, as well as the key legal provisions governing the workers’ rights and obligations, on the one hand, and the employers’ obligations, on the other. We highlighted the importance of legal employment and its advantages, especially for vulnerable individuals, such as those who are not fluent in Serbian or familiar with Serbian law.
During the second part of the session, BCHR’s client from Iraq, Ahmed Al-Riebat, who has also been engaged within R4R as an assistant for refugees, shared his experience of joining the Serbian labour market. He spoke about the differences between the business culture and communication in Serbia and his country of origin. He tried to alert the attendees planning on finding a job in Serbia to the employers’ expectations and the difficulties they may encounter in communication with their coworkers and how to overcome them more easily.
