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National seasonal workers aren’t lazy, but they need to be motivated

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Public was recently shocked to learn that there are significantly more foreigners than national citizens working in Montenegro this summer.

Weekend Edition of Dnevne Novine daily spoke to different professionals who do not believe that national workforce is lazy, but that they are not qualified and unmotivated.

Some defend national workers and blame the system for the bad situation on the labor market, while other see the problem in bad education and mentality.

Labor market and educational system in discord

Employers Union of Montenegro UPCG said that the seasonal workforce in our country is formed by employing foreigners because there is a discrepancy between the needs of the labor market and the educational system.

“The main problem is their lack of practical skills and their inability to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. Ideal employee is the one who can respond in short term, which means they need to have previous work experience”, UPCG stated.

They said that schools or faculties do not mean that a candidate is qualified.

“Previous work experience means that the candidate has learned how to use his or her skills, such as client communication, team work, flexibility and similar”, UPCG stated.

President of Montenegrin Tourist Association CTU Zarko Radulovic said for WN that the key issue with national work force is that they are unwilling to work the whole season.

“The fact is that at this moment, our seasonal workers who started working in May or June need to quit, because they go back to school by the end of August. The season lasts until November, and then we have a problem”, Radulovic said.

He says that as far as the state goes, all the measures have been taken, but the issue is in the mentality of the society.

Over 500 people found work through Summer Job

Student Parliament of the University of Montenegro SPUCG claims that the situation is not as bad as it seems. They said that they have been organizing a fair of seasonal work Summer Job for the past ten years, which contributes to decrease in unemployment of young people.

“Young people showed great interest in these year’s fairs in Podgorica, Kotor and Bijelo Polje. Over 500 people found work through Summer Job”, SPUCG stated.

They also said that the University will meet them halfway and enable them to start the school year later.

However, they are concerned about the relation students have with the Employment Bureau ZZZCG.

“ZZZCG removed master and phd students from the records, although some of them would probably appreciate seasonal work. We do not understand such attitude from ZZZCG, and we will try to discuss it with the relevant institutions”, SPUCG said.

WN reminds that Montenegro has been facing an issue with unemployment of young people during the season for a while now, but the institutions claim there has been some progress noted.

Montenegrin Parliament passed a law that was to regulate foreign workforce in 2015. It introduced quota for the number of foreign workers on a yearly basis. Employers were strongly opposed to this law, ZZZCG was pleased with it, as it brought results from 2015 to 2016.

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