Seasonal workers face a harsh reality with widespread informal employment and a lack of formal contracts. Despite slight improvements, the 2023 inspections revealed continuing problems. Experts say it's time for legal reforms to protect workers' rights!
Authors: Hume Cana and Nasibe Nur Karik
The Albanian coast and touristic Albania during the summer season, which we left behind, amazed quite a few people in the world with the beauty of its beaches and the low cost of vacations, but what was never shown in the international media was a sad part of the tourism sector. tourism, this priority of the government, apparently not so in all directions.
Armando M. is a young man who has been working in the tourism sector as a seasonal employee for several years, where he gained his experience in this sector in Montenegro and Croatia. In recent years, he has chosen to work in Albania.
"In Albania, I worked in famous restaurants in Vlora, Saranda and Tirana. The salary was satisfactory, as much as I asked for, I received as much, but the salary I had was not declared", - says the young man, who adds that he has not signed any contract in the workplaces in Albania.
"In every country where I've been, I haven't signed any contract and I've been working like that for a long time," he says.
"I worked as a receptionist in a hotel in Saranda and my salary, for the area where I worked, was one of the highest and often the owner of the hotel told me that, "the salary is confidential, so don't tell the rest of the staff", - she says Hana, a young woman, who chose to share her story with Laboratory of Investigative Journalism. She shows that she did not sign a contract, even though she was one of the people who was in constant communication with the clients and could be identified very easily by the state structures that make checks.
"We had only verbally agreed on the work, the working conditions and the salary. At first we agreed that overtime would be paid. I worked a lot of overtime because there was a shortage of staff and for the first and second shifts I was the only receptionist, but the overtime was never mentioned and never paid for. The same thing happened to all the staff, and even the same thing happened to other employees, who worked in the hotels near us", - she concludes, adding that, even though she had social security, it was as if she was paid a minimum wage. .
However, undeclared work in tourism or flagrant violations of the Labor Code are not a problem unknown to state authorities. In 2022, the State Inspectorate of Labor and Social Services carried out inspections in 1,115 entities with increased activity during the summer season, where a total of 13,023 people worked, and it resulted that 428 employees worked completely in the black, while 174 entities were punished with administrative measure "Suspension" due to flagrant violations of labor legislation, meanwhile, administrative measure "Warning" was imposed on 91 subjects for violations of labor legislation. Meanwhile, only 9 businesses were fined for the same violation. According to ISHPSH, during its inspections in 2022, 36% of employees identified by the controls were provided with minimum wage.
But let's see how the situation is presented for the month of June 2023, before the mass influx of tourists in July and August begins. During June 2023, ISHPSH has conducted checks in 303 entities, where out of 3,536 employees, about 70 of them worked without an individual contract. The Labor Inspectorate informs that 78 employees were working completely in the dark, while out of 303 subjects, 84 of them were found to be in violation of the labor legislation.
According to ISHPSH, the problems of informality have decreased from 2022 to 2023, but they still remain a problem for young Albanians, who work in the season.
Experts point out the problems
In conditions where informality is high in this sector of the Albanian economy, which is experiencing growth, legal experts state that an intervention is necessary to provide legal guarantees for seasonal employees.
"Under normal conditions, in terms of needs, represented by our market for seasonal employees, which will grow practically and will extend to many sectors, I believe that it is necessary to further develop the rates, having the minimum a standard contract or, I am saying, it would be better a decision of the Council of Ministers in terms of the conditions of seasonal contracts and so on", says Jordan Daci, who adds that it is necessary as an element, because there are many few references.
For the employment expert, Kumrie Zika, working hours, which are not implemented, are a very big problem. "In the contract or in the interview, it is stated that he will work on a certain schedule, and then the working hours are increased and he is overloaded with other work. In addition to these, weekly leave rights are also taken away, which makes life difficult for an employee in that job position; as well as when workers have physiological or family needs, the employer does not give them leave", she says, adding that there are cases when many workers have suffered from Covid-i and have stayed at work, serving customers. "Something to be taken into consideration, because an employee with Covid it can infect many customers and other workers", she adds.
On the other hand, for the labor market expert, Erion Muçaj, the problems in the tourist season in terms of employees in the labor market are diverse, but what is emphasized is the problem with labor contracts.
"Rather, the contractual relationship is determined on a verbal basis and communication, where the parties agree generously on the work relationship, than in reality with contracts dedicated to the work service and this promotes or affects the informality of seasonal work in the sector and in the tourism industry ", he says.
On the other hand, the Labor Inspectorate, which carries out continuous monitoring in the labor market, has often encountered the lack of employment contracts in businesses related to the tourism sector, but the checks that this Inspectorate carries out are only in one small part of businesses operating in this sector.
The problem, according to Mr. Daci, is that there are no legal provisions for seasonal work.
"In my knowledge, not being absolute, I believe I am correct, there are no predictions. We have, for example, forecasts in terms of the tourist Services contract, while in terms of seasonal work we don't", he concludes.
Erzen Keta, from the agency Job notification.al, makes a clearer reflection of the labor market in the tourism sector in Albania.
"The demands for staff have increased, taking into account that businesses are increasing day by day, which means that new businesses are opening, but there are also many problems", he says, indicating that employees who find work through this company, are more protected in this market.
"The business must provide the points we are looking for; it's housing, work hours and pay reflected. In the season we are always talking, the salary for a waiter was somewhere around 800 thousand old lek or 80 thousand new lek, which means that the business cannot pay less than that. If the business violates the contract, we are obliged to notify all our workers, whom we have sent there, to this business, to withdraw from there, and this is one way we managed to keep the situation under control. ", he says.
Meanwhile, as far as the implementation of the contracts is concerned, Mr. Keta says that there are more problems here. "Because the part of the contract is not very functional and our suggestion is to work a little more with this part, because everything is specified in the contract, such as the part of the payment and the part of the working hours".
The Tax Administration does not know how many seasonal employees there are
The General Directorate of Taxes in Albania answers the question of the number of employees for the years 2020-2023 in hotel-tourism with an average number. For example, for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, respectively, the average number of employees, according to Taxes, was 47,144, 47,854, 47,955, while for the year 2023, an increase of almost 10 thousand more employees is observed, reaching 57,608.
"As far as seasonal employees are concerned, there is no separate category available for them, but during June 2023 there are about 11,029 employees who may have worked part-time", - says the General Directorate of Taxes officially.
At a time when even the state institutions do not have statistics on seasonal employees, it is difficult to say their number and the need of a country that aims to become a champion in the Balkans for tourism, for a legal package in this sector, is clear. it would facilitate the work of businesses and guarantee rights to employees.
This article is part of the Investigative Journalism Laboratory project, which is financially supported by the Public Relations Office of the US Embassy in Tirana. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of State.
