The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Jobs Cuts Fuel Ethnic Suspicions in South Serbia
Presevo and Bujanovac | 24 November 2009 | By Driton Salihu
P.B., a 40-year old Serb employed by the local authority of Bujanovac in South Serbia, lives in fear of losing his job, following an announcement that Serbia’s civil service is to engage in cost-cutting redundancies.
Worried that he might annoy his superiors, he would only give out his initials, like most people interviewed for this article.
He also explains that he is certain that his Albanian-led local authority intends to fire more Serbs than Albanians from their jobs. “If the reports are true that the number of employees must reflect the ethnic structure of the municipality, a lot of Serbs stand to lose their jobs,” he says. This is because Albanians outnumber Serbs in Bujanovac but Serbs still outnumber Albanians in municipal employment.
As part of a series of measures aimed at reducing public expenses during the economic crisis, Serbia’s government has resolved to cut the number of employees in local government. According to the plan, which is to take effect on January 1, 2010, in Bujanovac and Presevo, both municipalities with majority Albanian populations, a total of 105 employees will lose their jobs.
The government is basing the proposed redundancy figures for each local authority on an estimate that no municipality should employ more than four employees per every 1,000 citizens.
The law defining the threshold of the number of employees in local government has not yet been adopted, however.
Currently it is still being discussed by deputies in parliament, and the number of redundancies in Presevo and Bujanovac may be lowered a little if some amendments to the law submitted by some of the minority parties are adopted.
P. B. is worried about his future because he does not believe that the redundancy terms offered by the state, if he loses his job, will give him enough cash to launch a business on his own.
“With a dozen years of service behind me I might get 3-4,000 euros at most, and you can barely open a newsstand with that,” he said. “I certainly won’t find a new job, which makes me very frustrated,” says P.B., who has a secondary school diploma.
Bujanovac is no boomtown. Only two companies work profitably here, and even they have had to lay off workers.
In 2002, a group of ethnic Albanian parties took power locally, and following the example widespread all over Serbia that parties reward their members with state jobs, they began employing more ethnic Albanians in municipal institutions.
Throughout Serbia, the number of employees in state administration has grown over the last nine years with every change of power and the total number of people working for the state is now estimated at around 60,000.
The government plans to half the number of around 22,000 employees in municipalities by this rationalisation.
However, in South Serbia, there is an additional danger of sackings fuelling ethnic tension. In 2000 and 2001 the area, also known as the Presevo Valley, was the scene of an armed conflict between the security forces and an ethnic Albanian guerrilla army, the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.
J.V., also a Serb, is equally afraid of losing his job in the municipality.
“I’m certain the Serbs will be fired before the Albanians,” this official with a university degree said. “I just hope that my 20 years of service save me from the sack”.
Albanians employed by the municipality are also worried about their jobs. Their numbers have increased considerably in the last seven years, since Albanian parties came to power in the town.
A.R., an Albanian aged 39, got his job in the municipality several years ago. He is well aware that the authorities cannot sack only Serbs. “There may be more Serbs among the redundant workers but Albanians will certainly lose their jobs too,” he said. Like his Serbian colleagues, he did not want to give his name, adding that if he got fired he has no idea what he would do for a living.
Shaip Kamberi, mayor of Bujanovac, which has to get rid of about 41 employees, told Balkan Insight that the ethnic structure of the municipality would count for something when dealing with redundancies.
“People’s professional competence, age, but also ethnic structure will be taken into consideration,” he said. Kamberi adds that in his municipality the job has been made somewhat easier by the fact that 13 workers have volunteered to accept severance pay, which meant they have to decide the fate of only 28 employees.
Kamberi still hopes that Bujanovac local authority won’t have to fire anyone. He says the government should take note of the fact that besides the 43,000 citizens living in the town according to the census in 2002, another 10,000 citizens live abroad. If that figure was added, he said, it would increase the quota of employees the municipality was allowed to retain.
Farush Islami, head of the municipal management, agreed that that the workforce of the local authority should reflect the municipality’s ethnic structure. “Until the law [on local government employment levels] is adopted, we cannot say which employee will become redundant,” he said. “However, I believe that the number of employees, not only in local government, but in state institutions as well, should reflect the ethnic structure of the population.”
According to the last census from 2002, 54.7 per cent of the population of Bujanovac are Albanians, 34.1 per cent are Serbs, and 8.9 per cent are Roma.
Stojanca Arsic, a member of the Bujanovac local assembly and a leader of the local Serbs, says the Albanian-led local authority must be very cautions when deciding who is made redundant. “If they sack more Serbs it will inevitably create political tensions in the municipality,” Arsic predicted.
This might endanger ongoing negotiations between local Serbs and Albanians on forming a multi-ethnic authority in the municipality. “If a large number of Serbs lose jobs in the municipality, it would put pressure on Serbs to move out,” Arsic claimed.
In the neighbouring municipality of Presevo, according to the government plan, 64 local staffers will be left without a job. Zoran Stojanovic, a Serb working in the municipal management, says so few Serbs are employed in Presevo that he does not see believe the few left will get the sack. Unlike Bujanovac, 90 per cent of the population in Presevo is Albanian.
His Albanian colleague, Avni Xhelili, says that all the employees are afraid because nowadays it is not easy finding a new job. He says that it is good idea to take the ethnic structure of the population into consideration when sacking redundant workers. “It’s the best way and is only fair. But who will be fired eventually depends on leaders and their decisions,” he said.
Like leaders in Bujanovac, leaders in Presevo also hope they won’t have to fire anyone. The head of the local administration, Behlul Selimi, says besides the 35,000 citizens living in the town according to the census in 2002, another 13,000 citizens of Presevo live abroad. Adding that figure would increase the quota of employees.
But this seems unlikely. Government officials told Balkan Insight that in all municipalities in Serbia the census from 2002 would be the only relevant source of data used to establish the number of redundancies.
Despite this, officials in Presevo still hope they won’t have to get rid of anyone. Selimi said that was why the municipality had not given much attention to the issue of the criteria to be used for sacking people. “We shall see when the law takes effect,” he concluded.
The government has meanwhile emphasised that municipalities will decide the reduction of their local administrations on their own. In theory, that means that they can decide not to fire anyone.
However, if they don’t, they will have to finance such jobs themselves, and it is a big question whether either impoverished Bujanovac or Presevo could sustain such a financial burden.
Driton Salihu is a journalist from Preshevo. This article was published with the support of the British embassy in Belgrade as part of BIRN's Training and Reporting Project.
