Damages to the state budget as a result of illegal dismissals of employees in the public sector

Pristina, February 22, 2022 – The FOL movement, with the support of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), has published the report “Illegal dismissal of employees in the public sector – the consequences on the state budget”, where it has generally addressed the issue of illegal departures from the work relationship in the public sector, as well as the cost of the state budget as a result of these departures.

The main purpose of the report is to draw the attention of the institutions responsible for the impact and consequences on the state budget in the event of the termination of employment relationships of employees in the public sector, when the same are done not respecting the provisions of the legislation in force.

Albana Hasani, from the FOL Movement, said that a total of 128 complaints from civil servants were submitted to the Independent Supervisory Council during the year 2019 – October 2021 against decisions to terminate employment relationships at state institutions. 69 of these complaints were submitted against the decisions of the central administration (respectively 54%), while the rest of 54 complaints (or 46%) were against the decisions of the local administration.

“Regarding the decisions of the Council, it should be noted that from January 21, 2019 to October 2020, the Independent Supervisory Council for the Civil Service of Kosovo was non-functional, therefore during this period it was not possible to make any decisions in relation to the submitted requests. The malfunctioning of the Independent Supervisory Council for almost two years has caused difficulties in protecting the rights of Kosovo’s civil servants, due to the impossibility of making decisions on the one hand, and the accumulation of a large number of cases, on the other.” Hassan said.

According to Hasan, from October 2020 to October 2021, the Council decided on 40 complaints for termination of employment, of which 11 were approved, 3 were rejected, 22 were rejected, 3 were declared incompetent and 1 is back for reconsideration.

Hasani emphasized that during the period January – October 2021, a total of 178 decisions were brought by the Courts of the Republic of Kosovo for labor disputes, in cases where the parties were state institutions represented by the State Bar. Of all these disputes, 109 disputes were lost by the state institutions, 44 disputes were won, 9 were partially approved, 5 were returned to retrial, 3 were reinstated and in 1 case the lawsuit was dismissed due to lack of competence.

As for the cost of these decisions, according to Hasan, the amount lost from the state budget in relation to the court decisions for termination of the employment relationship brought during the period January – October 2021 in public institutions, exceeded the amount of 300 thousand euros.

“So, this means that more than 300,000 euros have cost the Kosovo budget illegal dismissals from work in public institutions, as well as other decisions related to work in these institutions,” concluded Hasani.

Finally, regarding the findings of this report, the FOL Movement has given the following recommendations:

Termination of the employment relationship of employees by employers must be done in accordance with the provisions of the Kosovo Labor Law and the Law on the Civil Service of Kosovo.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration should create an electronic database in which all cases of dismissals, voluntary departures of workers and disputes from the civil service in central and local administration institutions will be recorded.

Consequently, all central and local government institutions, as well as other bodies, must be obliged to report the data in the electronic database of this institution, in such cases, no later than 1 month from the day of dismissal, removal, or the beginning of the dispute.

Courts of the Republic of Kosovo respect the legal deadlines for handling cases from labor disputes, as well as treat cases from labor relations with priority.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration took concrete steps in order to inform and raise the awareness of the institutions for the protection of the rights of employees.

To increase the supervisory/monitoring function of the Independent Supervisory Council of the Civil Service of Kosovo towards public administration institutions, related to the implementation of the rules and principles of the legislation for the civil service. Consequently, reports related to monitoring findings are regularly published on the KPMShC website.