Inspection’s last year’s report said that the increased inspections of informal labor sector were a consequence of FBiH government’s resolution from June 2011. Additional 100,000 KM was allocated from liquid reserve for this purpose. The money was spent on commissioning the FBiH and cantonal tax inspectors and paying for costs of commuting and advertisement.
During the oversight 107 inspectors went to the field and inspected 31,310 employees of which they found 1,729 informal workers or 5.5 percent. This is significantly less then a year before. The inspectors said that this was the result of the successful past inspections and in general an increased prevention and regular visits by the inspector teams as well as increased awareness of employers.
The biggest amount of informal workers or 467 was encountered in the Sarajevo Canton area where inspections were conducted in 9 municipalities. The least number of informal workers was encountered in Bosnia Podrinje Canton where four unregistered workers were encountered between two municipalities. The inspections were carried out in the sectors of manufacturing, trade, tourism and hospitality, forestry, traffic, health, veterinary health, trade in oil derivatives and tax revenue.
Under inspection were labor contracts, and if salaries and health and retirement benefits were paid on time. Fiscal cash registers were also inspected. Because of fiscal cash registers and unregistered workers, the inspectors have filed around 4 million KM worth of misdemeanor reports.
The FBiH inspectors said that the indirect effects of informal work carry through in the employers’ increased registering of new employees and increased revenue in the workers’ benefits.
The Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) published several stories about informal workers in Feb. 2007. According to the records from the entity and state statistical agencies, there were 810,792 registered workers, while 241,740 were registered as informal workers in 2006. CIN commissioned Prism Research Agency to do a survey on the sample of 1,550 respondents. Majority of respondents said that the fact that they worked informally affected the way they perceived they work. Around 90 percent of them said that they would be more efficient and responsible at work if their employer had registered them. 21 percent of respondents said they were worried about their future, but they did little to change that.
