In just seven days, more than a thousand workers lost their jobs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the data from the Tax Administration of the Federation of BiH. The number of employees on October 5 this year, compared to the previously published data from September 28, is lower by 1,059, according to data from the FBiH Tax Administration.
Commenting on these data, economist Zeljko Ricka told “Avaz” that employers had high expectations from the “corona law”, but it did not come true.
“The law should have targeted companies operating in the most affected sectors. However, it states that only those whose income has fallen by 20 percent or more can receive assistance through contributions. It is obvious that labor-intensive activities have not received assistance and are very sensitive to contributions. Every day of non-work costs them too much and employers decide on the option of temporary dismissal, even for a few weeks, in order to save money,” Ricka explained.
He added that the “corona law” did not properly assess what the goal of the Federal Government’s measures was.
”They needed to define whether the goal was to preserve companies that were performing well or to protect workers. So, the policy was not created carefully enough in that direction. Employers now decide to lay off workers as soon as they notice they have a shortage of orders. But they also return employees as soon as an order appears,” Ricka pointed out.
He stated that the “corona law” was not implemented to the end, the money was not spent and it was returned to the funds from which it was taken.
”It was not defined what exactly was intended to be achieved by the “corona law” and that led to what we have today. There could be no criterion for a drop in traffic of 20 percent or more. The announced new measures do not make much sense either, because it is a very limited amount of money. Those 100 million should be divided into a hundred pages, so that the help will be practically insignificant – Ricka concluded.
If this situation lasts, the BiH economy will not have potential and we will have nowhere to help the economy. It was published that GDP fell by 10.8 percent, which is a huge amount of money that did not reach the budget. The state will no longer have a place to create funds to help businessmen and workers. They have no choice but to borrow, and we know that negotiations with the IMF have been postponed until the local elections take place, says Ricka.
