Country Guides

End of Employment in Serbia

An employment agreement in Serbia can end by mutual agreement, by expiry of a fixed term, by resignation, by employer termination on legally defined grounds, or in specific cases such as reaching age 65 with at least 15 years of insurance service, the employee’s death, loss of working capacity, or a parent or guardian requesting termination for an employee under 18.

Employer-side termination is formal and procedural: a dismissal is lawful only if it rests on a permitted ground and the prescribed steps were followed.

Grounds for employer termination

The Labour Law recognises these categories:

  1. Performance/capability: The employee does not achieve results or lacks the necessary knowledge and abilities. The employer must first give written notice of the deficiencies, indicate instructions for improvement and allow a reasonable improvement period.
  2. Conviction or failure to return: A final conviction for a work-related criminal offence, or a failure to return within 15 days after suspension or the unpaid leave has ended.
  3. Breach of work duty: Examples include negligent performance of duties, abuse of authority, and misuse of work equipment. The employer’s rulebook or employment contract can define additional breaches.
  4. Breach of work discipline: Unjustified absence, sick leave abuse, intoxication, providing false employment information, refusing lawful instructions, and similar.
  5. Redundancy: Technological, economic, or organisational changes remove the need for the role.

Procedure

For duty and discipline grounds, the employer must first serve a written warning stating the ground, facts and evidence, and give the employee at least 8 days to respond; a union member may attach the union’s opinion.

The termination itself is a written, reasoned decision (rešenje) with instructions on remedies, delivered personally, with a notice-board fallback that deems delivery after 8 days if personal service fails.

The employer must act within six months of learning the facts (at most one year from the event); afterwards the ground lapses.

Severance

Before a redundancy dismissal, the employer must pay severance equal toat least one third of the employee’s monthly salary for each completed year of service, counting service with the current employer, a predecessor in a business transfer, and related entities.

The base is the average salary of the three months before payment. Severance must be paid before the termination takes effect.

Protected categories

Dismissal is prohibited during pregnancy, maternity leave, childcare leave, and special childcare leave. A fixed-term contract is extended until the end of the protected leave period.

If the employer dismisses an employee without knowing they are pregnant, the dismissal may be voided where the employee provides medical evidence within 30 days.

Trade union representatives are also protected against dismissal where the termination is motivated by their union role.

An employee can sue within 60 days of receiving the decision. If the court finds the dismissal unlawful, remedies include reinstatement, back pay and payment of missed social insurance contributions, or compensation instead of a reinstatement. Monetary employment claims are time-barred after three years.

Employees dismissed through no fault of their own (redundancy in particular) can register with the National Employment Service for unemployment benefits.

A formal redundancy programme, prepared with the representative union and the National Employment Service, is required when planned redundancies within 30 days reach:

  • 10 employees (workforce of 21-99)
  • 10% of employees (workforce of 100-300)
  • 30 employees (workforce over 300)

It is also required whenever at least 20 employees are made redundant within 90 days, regardless of size.

The draft programme goes to the union and NES for opinion within 8 days of preparation.

After a redundancy, the employer may not hire someone else for the same job for three months; if the need returns sooner, the dismissed employee has priority.

Route: Employer dismissal for capability (poor results/lack of skills)

Notice: 8 to 30 days, per the general act or contract

Route: Employee resignation

Notice: Written, at least 15 days; the act or contract may extend it to at most 30 days

Route: Either party during probation

Notice: At least 5 working days, with reasons

The notice period starts the day after the decision is delivered.

Other termination grounds, including disciplinary dismissal and redundancy, do not carry a statutory notice period. In redundancy cases, severance must instead be paid before termination.

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