The Law on Safety and Health at Work regulates the implementation of safety and health measures for employees at the workplace and in the working environment to prevent injuries at work and occupational diseases, the term of which is defined by the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance. In the case of occupational injuries, occupational diseases and illnesses related to the work of the employee, the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act establish the obligations of employers regarding record keeping, reporting of occupational injuries, reporting on occupational injuries and occupational diseases, injury insurance at work and occupational diseases, etc.
The Law on Safety and Health at Work applies to state bodies, bodies of autonomous provinces, bodies of local self-government units, companies, other legal entities and natural persons in all activities.
The Law on Safety and Health at Work does not apply to the performance of tasks in the field of defence and police tasks and tasks of protection and rescue, and other internal tasks in direct connection with police tasks within the scope of the competent state body, as well as tasks of protection and rescue performed by other entities following a particular law if certain issues of safety and health at work during the performance of that service and those jobs are regulated by a special law and regulations adopted based on that law.
The employer’s obligation to report an injury at work
The first step the employer must take when he learns that an injury has occurred at work is to report it to the competent authorities.
The Law on Safety and Health at Work, in the provision of Article 64, obliges the employer to:
- immediately, and at the latest within 24 hours from the occurrence, verbally, in writing or electronically report to the competent labour inspection and the competent authority for internal affairs any fatal, collective or severe injury at work, as well as any dangerous occurrence that could threaten employee safety and health
- immediately, and at the latest within five working days from the date of occurrence, verbally, in writing or electronically report to the competent labour inspectorate a minor injury at work due to which the employee is unable to work for more than three days
- no later than within five days from the day of delivery of the opinion of the health institution that determined the occupational disease, report the occupational illness to the competent labour inspection.
The Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs must make available on its website the contacts of on-duty labour inspectors.
Reporting of work injury and occupational disease
The employer is obliged to submit a report on occupational injuries and diseases at the workplace to the employee who suffered an injury, i.e. who has been diagnosed with an occupational disease, to the organization responsible for health insurance and the Directorate for Occupational Safety and Health at Work..
The report on work injury is submitted in written form until the establishment of the Register of Work Injuries in electronic form.
The content and method of issuing a report on occupational injury and disease is prescribed by the Rulebook on the content and method of issuing a report on occupational injury and occupational disease (“Official Gazette of the RS”, no. 72/2006, 84/2006 – corrected, 4/2016, 106/2018 and 14/2019 – from now on Rulebook). This Rulebook still needs to be harmonized with the new Law on Safety and Health at Work, but it is still in force until the new law is passed.
Reports on occupational injuries and diseases that occur at the workplace are issued on the form prescribed by this Rulebook. Report on the injury at work (Form 1) and Report on occupational disease (Form 2) are printed with the Rulebook and form an integral part of it.
The report on injury at work is completed per the note in that form, and it shall be submitted to the competent authority without the part that refers to the note.
The report on work injuries and occupational diseases that occur at the workplace is filled in five copies. After entering all the data prescribed by this Rulebook, the employer, without delay, and at the latest within 24 hours from the time of entering the data, delivers all five copies of the report to the health institution where the injured person was examined or the occupational disease was diagnosed, to include the findings in the content of the report and opinions of doctors, i.e. health institutions.
The doctor who examined the injured person, i.e. the health institution that determined the occupational disease, writes the findings and opinion in the report within two days from the day of his admission and submits the completed report to the employer without delay and no later than the next day.
The report in which all the data prescribed by the Rulebook and the findings and opinion of the doctor, i.e. the health institution, are entered, the employer, within two days from the day of receiving the completed report, submits to the branch of the Republic Health Insurance Fund where the injured or suffering from an occupational disease exercises the rights established regulations on health insurance.
The Republic Health Insurance Fund branch certifies all five copies of the report, of which it keeps one copy of the report for its own needs and returns the other copies to the employer.
Employer one copy of the certified report:
- keeps it for its own needs
- delivered to the employee immediately and no later than within two days of its receipt
- delivered to the branch of the Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance – submits to the ministry responsible for work
- to the Directorate for Safety and Health at Work.
Register of Injuries at Work
The Register of Injuries at Work (from now on the Register) is established and maintained in electronic form by the Directorate for Safety and Health at Work, with the technical support of the Government service responsible for the design, harmonization, development and functioning of the electronic administration system, to keep statistics on injuries at work.
The minister in charge of labour affairs prescribes more detailed conditions regarding the keeping of the Register.
The Register contains the following information: first and last name and unique citizen ID number of the person authorized to enter data; first and last name, gender, unique citizen registration number; place of residence, that is, place of residence, level of qualification, information about the workplace and injury at work of the injured person, according to established code books; first and last name, unique citizen registration number, address and place of the individual’s employer and the first and last name of the doctor who first examined the injured person. The registry uses valid codes and classifications.
Following their competencies, data users access and use the Register by authorizing access to the Register or using data from the Register through the data user’s software solution on the Authority’s Service Bus or the Data Exchange System.
The employer enters data in the Register.
The Register downloads data from the integrated health information system of the Republic of Serbia and the information system of the organization responsible for health insurance.
The employer, i.e. the authorized official of the employer who enters data into the Register, enters information about the employer, i.e. the employer user or the employer individual, about the injured person, injury at work, direct manager and eyewitness.
The employer shall be obliged to provide the Directorate for Safety and Health at Work electronically with data on the authorized official who enters the data in the Register. The Directorate for Safety and Health at Work keeps a record of the authorized official at the employer, who enters data into the Register.
After the employer enters the data into the Register, the selected doctor, using the integrated health information system of the Republic of Serbia, enters the findings and opinion of the doctor who first examined the injured person. After the selected doctor enters the above data, the organization responsible for health insurance enters the assessment of the work injury using the information system.
Additional training in case of serious injury at work, fatal injury at work or collective injury at work with severe or fatal injury at work
In case of serious injury at work, fatal injury at work or collective injury at work with severe or fatal injury at work, the employer is obliged to immediately, and at the latest within eight days from the occurrence of the injury, carry out additional training of the employees in that workplace in the organizational the unit where the injury occurred, with the obligation to inform all employees, according to the provisions of Article 36, paragraph 2 of the Law on Safety and Health.
Occupational injury of employees who work from home or remotely
The new Law on Safety and Health at Work introduced new definitions, among other things, for working from home and remote work. Detailed regulation of working from home and at a distance was carried out in the Guide for Safe and healthy work from Home, which was adopted by the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs.
Article 44 of the Law on Safety and Health at Work prescribes the obligation of the employer to ensure safety and health at work in cooperation with the employee when working from home and working remotely, whereby the employer’s responsibility is limited to defining the conditions for safe and healthy work, means for work issued by the employer, defining the work process in connection with the execution of tasks for which the employee is in charge and prescribing preventive measures for safe and healthy work. Article 45 stipulates that the employer may, but does not have an obligation to issue an act on risk assessment for work from home and remote work in written form with the participation of the employee, but also the obligation of the employee to inform the employer of the fulfilment of the conditions required for safe and healthy work following the act on risk assessment, as well as to notify the employer promptly of any subsequent change in conditions.
Injury at work of persons working outside the employment relationship
Work outside of the employment relationship, according to the Labor Law, is employment realized through contracts for the performance of temporary and occasional jobs, contracts for work, contracts for additional work, contracts for professional training and agreements for professional training. In terms of the Labor Law, these persons do not have the status of an employee.
If, based on the concluded contract, the work outside the employment relationship is carried out on the employer’s premises and under his direct control, the employer will certainly have an obligation to act in everything following the Law on Safety and Health at Work and to train these employed persons for safe and healthy work, and that the act on risk assessment foresees that workplace in the working environment and determines the way and measures for their elimination, and if an injury occurs at work and all other obligations arising from the injury (reporting to the competent authorities, submitting reports, etc.).
The employer is obliged to train the employee, even a person who works outside of the employment relationship, for safe and healthy work when establishing an employment relationship, i.e. another work engagement, transfer to other jobs when introducing new technology or new tools for work or changing equipment for work, as well as when changing the work process that can cause a change in measures for safe and healthy work.
During this training, the employer is obliged to familiarize the employee with all types of risks and specific standards for safety and health at work following the act on risk assessment.
Obligation to keep records
The employer is obliged to keep and keep records of:
- workplaces with increased risk, employees who perform tasks at workplaces with increased risk and medical examinations of employees who perform these tasks
- injuries at work and occupational diseases
- employees trained for safe and healthy work and proper use of personal protective equipment
- employees exposed to group 3 and/or group 4 biological hazards
- employees who are exposed to carcinogens or mutagens, chemical substances and asbestos, as well as on health status and exposure
- a report on the implementation of measures for safety and health at work for the activities referred to in Article 48 of this law
- performed inspections and checks of work equipment and inspections and tests of electrical and lightning protection installations
- performed examinations of working environment conditions
- issued personal protective equipment.
The employer must keep records of employees trained for safe and healthy work following the Law on Safety and Health at Work, or a copy thereof, at the headquarters or other business premises of the employer or at another place, depending on where the employee works.
Records may be kept by the employer in electronic form, except for records on employees trained for safe and healthy work and proper use of personal protective equipment.
Insurance against injuries at work and occupational diseases
The employer is obliged to insure the employees in case of work-related injuries and occupational diseases to provide compensation for damages.
The employer bears financial resources for employee insurance in the event of work-related injuries and occupational diseases.
Conditions and procedures for insurance against employees’ occupational injuries and diseases are regulated by law.
Last update: 16. 8. 2023.
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Injury at Work »
Labour inspection – jurisdiction and inspection »
Labour rule book »