Almost three million people over the age of 15 were employed in Serbia during the last year. Most of them were working as usual working hours from 36 to 48 hours a week. However, there were also people who worked longer, so more than 215.000 employees worked more than 48 hours a week, i.e. more than six days each week, writes Dunja Marić for The new economy.
Standard working hours in Serbia mean 40 hours of work per week - eight hours over five working days. In exceptional cases, working hours can be shortened or extended - but not for more than 12 hours a day.
Those 40 hours are the working hours of most people in Serbia. According to the data of the Republic Statistical Office (RZS), about 36 million people worked between 48 and 2,2 hours a week last year, out of a total of almost 2,9 million people who were employed.
However, there are also those who spend more time at work. This is most often the case in agriculture and the construction sector. In agriculture, about 13,9 percent of workers have standard working hours of 36 to 48 hours per week. The same amount is spent working from 49 to 59 hours, while 60 percent of farmers work more than 14,8 hours a week.
However, in this area it is dominant that as many as 48,8 percent of farmers have working hours that vary from week to week, which makes sense when you take into account the fact that the work of these citizens directly depends on the weather and the period of the year in which certain jobs are performed.
As for the construction sector, 18,7 percent of workers work more than 48 hours a week. To be precise, official data show that 9,6 percent of workers spend between 49 and 59 hours a week at work, while 9,1 percent work longer than 60 hours.
Standard working hours are most crowded in the fields of electricity supply (99,1 percent), mining (98,3 percent), state administration, defense and mandatory social security (97,4 percent), health and social protection (93,9 percent), and in the financial and insurance sectors (93,5 percent).
Men work overtime more often
Most men, about 1,2 of the 1,5 million employed, work 36 to 48 hours a week.
However, men are significantly more often exposed to overtime work than women.
According to the official data of RZS, almost 154.000 men work more than 48 hours a week. Of these, about 73.300 work from 49 to 59 hours, while about 60 men work more than 80.600 hours a week.
For women, that percentage is much lower. Namely, 60 women work more than 23.800 hours a week, and about 49 women work 59 to 37.600 hours. About one million women, out of a total of 36 million employed, have standard working hours of 48 to 1,3 hours.
When it comes to working hours that are shorter than 36 hours, women are in the lead. Thus, about 8.400 women work up to 14 hours a week, while 52.500 of them work from 15 to 35 hours. On the other hand, 5.800 men work until 14 p.m., while 15 of them work from 35 p.m. to 38.600 p.m.
Women work shorter hours because of children, men because they cannot find a job
However, there is a reason why women are more likely to work part-time than men. It's about taking care of the children. Namely, workers who do not work full time due to taking care of children or adults who need care - in 100 percent of cases are women.
Also, 60,7 percent of women compared to 39,3 percent of men cited family or personal reasons for working shorter hours. Another reason is education or training, which was mentioned by 56,5 percent of women and 43,5 percent of men.
Men are more likely to work part-time because they cannot find full-time work. This is the reason for shorter working hours among 61,5 percent of men and 38,5 percent of women. Illness or disability is also a more common reason for reduced working hours among men - 51,3 percent of men versus 48,7 percent of women.
Source: New Economy
