16 Workers Killed on the Job as Zero Tolerance for Employers Is Demanded

Since the beginning of the year, 16 workers have lost their lives at their workplaces. Of these cases, 65.7 percent were recorded in the construction sector.

Civil society representatives consider the current occupational health and safety situation alarming. Meanwhile, the Central Labor Inspectorate is the institution responsible for imposing punitive measures on employers when workplace violations are identified.

Gersi Gashi of the Center for Policies and Advocacy told KosovaPress that worker deaths make occupational health and safety the most pressing issue at the moment. According to him, the Labor Inspectorate should address the problem by applying a method that has proven somewhat successful: shutting down worksites.

Gashi stressed that suspending operations is the only way to ensure that a worksite without adequate occupational health and safety conditions does not continue operating. He also called for a stronger zero-tolerance policy so that the Labor Inspectorate does not tolerate such cases at all. According to him, increasing the number of new judges and standardizing how cases are handled would enable the courts to expedite the resolution of cases related to workers’ rights.

From a legal standpoint, Supreme Court Judge Qerim Ademaj told KosovaPress that courts have the authority to review claims by injured parties seeking compensation for any damages.

Ademaj said that in certain cases in which a worker died on the job, employers voluntarily compensated the worker’s family. However, when the parties did not agree on the amount of compensation or on other matters, families turned to the courts to seek the damages they believed they were entitled to. He said courts frequently handle cases of this nature, including damages affecting the victim’s family.

According to Ademaj, apart from compensation for damages, there is no other form of punishment for employers in such situations.

Jusuf Azemi, chairman of the Private Sector Workers’ Union, said the lack of punishment in previous cases encourages private companies to act irresponsibly toward workers. He said the main hope is that there will be no workplace deaths and that the union does not seek to have anyone punished.

However, Azemi stressed that a worker can lose their life, while the company owner may be detained for as little as 48 hours, then released and remain free. According to him, the failure to punish previous cases gives owners a kind of encouragement not to take responsibility for Kosovo’s private-sector workers.

KosovaPress sent questions to the Central Labor Inspectorate regarding this issue and its operations at worksites, but had received no response by the time the article was published.