Our employment team employment team provides a complete service dealing with all aspects of the employment relationship. The firm offers proactive, pragmatic and commercial employment law advice to key businesses and organizations in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our specialist lawyers are committed to providing value for money by adapting their service to their clients’ specific needs.
With the passage of new laws, sometimes conflicting decisions of the courts and the official opinions of the competent ministries, a flexible and open-minded approach enables the firm to develop a reliable service in line with the changing and challenging environments in which their clients operate. The firm has a professional relationship with the relevant authorities and are at all times aware of the sensitive nature of employer-employee relationships and issues that clients face.
Our team has provided day-to-day advising and a full service for employment issues to leading multinational and regional companies. In addition, we have also provided employment related advice to numerous diplomatic missions and international organizations.
Our work has included engagements and mandates in virtually all above mentioned practice areas throughout Serbia and Montenegro, including the preparation of employment contracts and handbooks, labor issues arising in connection with privatization and mergers and acquisition, assistance in connection with labor disputes, redundancy proceedings, the termination of employment, outsourcing, secondment, different benefit plans, preparation of share options schemes for employees, advise on pension entitlements, sick leave, injuries at work, the tax treatment of specific benefits and all other employment and labor related issues.
We are able to advise clients in all official languages of the local jurisdictions, as well as in English and German.
OUR PRACTICE
RESTRUCTURING
- Restructuring of the internal organisation of the work places
- Mass redundancy arising out of restructuring
- Representing employers in negotiations with trade unions/employees
- Spin-offs/outsourcing operating units
- Employment-law consultancy on mergers & acquisitions
- Due diligence with regard to employment law
- Post-merger integration of employees
- Defending employers against claims of unfair dismissal
CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT AND TERMINATION AGREEMENTS
- Drafting of standard employment contracts
- Amendment of employment contracts (through the “offer and annex” procedure)
- Drafting of individual employment (or out-of employment) contracts for executives, board members and managing directors
- Post-contractual restraints on competition
- Negotiating and drafting termination agreements
- Tax-optimized design of termination agreements and severance pay
- Dealing with and preventing negative consequences of termination with regard to unemployment benefits
TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT
- Termination of employment for cause (e.g. due to breach of the work duties or discipline)
- Termination due to “professional inadequacy”
- Redundancy lay-offs
- Planning for the laying off of specific employees
- Assessment of the grounds for employment termination
- Termination of employment on all other statutory grounds
MODERN REMUNERATION SYSTEMS AND STOCK OPTION PLANS
- Designing and implementing modern remuneration systems and their harmonization with the mandatory requirements of Serbian law
- Agreements on goals and performance management
- Stock option plans and other profit-sharing plans
- Employee incentive schemes
- Drafting agreements with trade unions
- Negotiating with trade unions
STRIKES
- Negotiations with trade unions
- Planning scenarios for the avoidance of strikes and the mitigation of the effects of a strike
- Determination of the minimum level of service during a strike (if applicable)
- Regulation of an employees’ and trade union’s conduct during a strike
- Agreements on the termination of strikes
OUTSOURCING
- Strategic preparation for outsourcing
- Drafting outsourcing agreements
- Allocation of liability between the client and out sourcing companies
- Spin-offs and partial spin-offs of operating units
- Personnel layoffs resulting from outsourcing
- Redundancy schemes
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS, TRADE UNIONS AND INDUSTRIAL ACTION
- Representing employers in negotiating collective bargaining agreements
- Transfer of a company to a different collective bargaining agreement
- Terminating the binding effect of collective agreements
- Advising employers and employers’ associations in industrial disputes
- Designing modern remuneration systems under collective bargaining agreements
INTERNET IN THE WORKPLACE
- Drafting agreements/rules on Internet use in the workplace
- Right to privacy
- Data protection issues
- Sanctions for unauthorized use of Internet I email
BOARDS OF DIRECTORS AND MANAGING DIRECTORS
- Appointment of directors and board members
- Drafting (out-)of employment contracts for directors / board members
- Removal and dismissal of directors / board members
- Severance agreements
- Designing board rules of procedure
- Board member remuneration
- Pension commitments
- Post-contractual non-compete agreements
- Liability issues
LABOR DISPUTES
- Together with our litigation department we represent our clients’ interests throughout Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia before all competent courts and arbitral tribunals
- Our clients benefit from our experience in court, our experience, our reputation, and our particular know-how in employment law
- Assessments of the outcome of potential and pending labor disputes and support to clients in negotiating terms of settlement
TEMPORARY HIRE OF EMPLOYEES AND SECONDMENT
- Drafting contracts on the supply of temporary employees
- Drafting contracts for work and services
- Preventing employment-law violations
CONSULTANCY ON MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
- Advice on the employment law aspects of mergers and acquisitions (due diligence) in both domestic and international transactions
INTERNATIONAL SECONDMENT OF PERSONNEL
- Optimizing international work contracts
- Drafting secondment contracts
- Secondments within a group of companies
- Support in obtaining residence /work permits
- Advice on social security questions
- Optimized design of severance agreements for expatriate employees
- Negotiation in international cases
EXPERT OPINIONS ON SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
- We also provide expert opinions on specific questions in all aspects of employment
HOW WE STAND OUT?
Our team of lawyers, each of whom are specialized in employment law, provide clients with top-quality advice on all aspects of labor law in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, in cooperation with colleagues from other jurisdictions we have also participated in and managed various multi-jurisdictional projects involving Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Albania.
Our lawyers have unrivaled experience and know-how in employment law as they have advised leading multi-national, international and domestic corporate clients on virtually all kinds of HR projects and matters throughout the region.
In particular, we largely benefit from our regional experience, which enables us to understand the employment authorities in different jurisdictions and to anticipate their position or potential conduct, as well as to tackle situations where there is little or no relevant practice.
CONTACT
DR. SLOBODAN DOKLESTIC
PARTNER
Tel. +381 (0)11 414 33 60 (switchboard)
+381 (0)11 414 33 62 (direct)
+381 (0)64 11 843 88 (cell)
E-mail: slobodan.doklestic@doklestic.law