The Union of Municipalities of Montenegro has submitted 10 amendments to the Parliament of Montenegro concerning the Draft Law on Amendments to the Labour Law.
Local governments are calling for the proposed amendments to the Labour Law to recognize them as one of the parties authorized to conclude collective agreements for local public enterprises, as well as for local government authorities themselves. Without such a provision, local governments would be excluded from social dialogue in areas financed from municipal budgets and in companies founded by municipalities. This is contrary to the Constitution of Montenegro, which guarantees the right of local self-government authorities to regulate and manage certain public and other affairs under their own responsibility and in the interest of the local population. This right is also guaranteed by the European Charter of Local Self-Government of the Council of Europe, which Montenegro has ratified.
The Union of Municipalities proposes deleting the provision stipulating that collective agreements apply directly, as it is in direct conflict with the Law on Local Self-Government, which assigns the authority to municipal assemblies to adopt decisions on the salaries of local government officials and employees. The issue of salaries and other remuneration of employees in local government administration is currently regulated by three laws that are mutually inconsistent. These are the systemic Law on Local Self-Government, the *lex specialis* – the Law on Salaries of Public Sector Employees, and the general Labour Law. In such cases, in accordance with the constitutional principle of the coherence of the legal system, the provisions of the systemic law prevail, and both the general and special laws, as well as subordinate legal acts, including collective agreements, must be aligned with it. Given the constitutionally guaranteed right of municipalities to their own budgets, a local self-government unit must be one of the signatories to the sectoral collective agreement governing local government administration.
The Union of Municipalities proposes introducing an obligation for employers to harmonize their internal regulations with the relevant sectoral collective agreement within six months of its adoption. Direct application of the sectoral collective agreement should be a measure of last resort, applicable only if the employer fails to complete the harmonization within the six-month period or does not have its own internal regulation in place.
To regulate the specific status of directors of legal entities established by the state or municipalities, and to eliminate inconsistencies with the Law on Business Organisations, the Union of Municipalities has proposed an amendment providing that such directors shall be employed on a fixed-term basis following a public recruitment procedure. Based on the results of the public competition, the competent authority would adopt a decision on their selection and appointment for a fixed term of office, upon the expiry of which they may be reappointed.
As situations frequently arise in practice where employees refuse to accept or acknowledge receipt of documents, thereby preventing or hindering the legally prescribed procedure for amending employment contracts and creating legal uncertainty as well as opportunities for the abuse of procedural rights, the Union of Municipalities has proposed an amendment regulating the employer's course of action in such cases in order to prevent these problems.
In view of the short limitation periods for initiating and conducting disciplinary proceedings, the Union of Municipalities has proposed a provision aimed at preventing the limitation period from expiring during an employee's temporary incapacity for work, annual leave, paid leave, or similar periods of absence, taking into account that these rights are sometimes subject to abuse.
One of the proposed amendments provides that matters relating to the determination of liability for breaches of work obligations that are not regulated by the Labour Law shall be governed by the provisions of the law regulating misdemeanours.
Only selected candidates should be required to submit medical fitness certificates.
One of the amendments proposed by the Union of Municipalities provides that only candidates selected by the employer for employment should be required to submit a medical fitness certificate. This approach protects candidates who are not selected through the recruitment process from incurring unnecessary costs associated with obtaining such certificates.
