Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Employment Service Convention, 1948 (No. 88) - Montenegro (Ratification: 2006)

Article 1 of the Convention. Contribution of the employment service to employment promotion. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government with respect to the new Law on Mediation in Employment and Rights arising from Unemployment (published in the Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 24/19), which entered into force on 30 April 2019. The Law regulates the establishment and functioning of employment agencies. Article 13 of the Law sets out the services provided by the Employment Agency of Montenegro, which include preparing persons for employment, job placement, implementation of active employment policy measures, and other activities aimed at promoting and increasing employment. The Employment Agency performs additional employment-related tasks, which include monitoring and assessing the labour market. The Government indicates that active employment policy measures are prescribed in section 38 of the 2019 Law, which include: education, and training of adults; incentives to promote employment and entrepreneurship, as well as direct job creation. The Employment Agency may also implement other active employment policy measures, depending on the needs of the labour market and the target groups identified in its Action Plan and Programme of Work. In this regard, the Government indicates that adult education and training programmes for unemployed persons with identified educational barriers to employment are being implemented to increase the employability and recruitment of these persons, as well as public work programmes, with a focus on hard-to-employ persons. The Committee also notes the detailed statistics provided by the Government regarding employment and unemployment during the reporting period. It notes that, as of December 2018, 29,366 vacancies were notified to the Employment Agency, 6.22 per cent less than the 31,315 vacancies notified in 2017. In particular, the Committee notes that in 2018, 1,295 unemployed persons enrolled in adult education and training programmes and 1,345 hard-to-employ persons were employed in public work programmes for a limited period. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide up-to-date, detailed information, including disaggregated statistical data on the nature and impact of the activities of the Employment Agency, especially in relation to hard-to-employ unemployed persons. The Committee further requests the Government to continue to provide information on the manner and extent to which the measures implemented have enabled the beneficiaries to obtain full, productive and sustainable employment. The Government is also requested to provide information on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the implementation of the principles of the Convention.

Articles 4 and 5. Cooperation with the social partners. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government on the activities undertaken by the employment agency, in cooperation with the social partners. The Committee invites the Government to continue to provide updated information on the arrangements made to ensure cooperation of the social partners in the organization and operation of the employment service and the development of employment service policy, as envisaged under the Convention.

Article 11. Cooperation between the public employment service and private employment agencies. In response to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government indicates that, in 2018, the Employment Agency, in cooperation with private employment agencies, implemented a pilot programme, “Empower me and I will succeed”, to support hard-to-employ persons. The Committee notes the detailed information provided by the Government on various training programmes and the number of beneficiaries throughout different phases of the programme. In this regard, the Government indicates that, during the first part of the programme, 925 participants received support to improve their self-confidence, increase their motivation for employment, help define their professional goals and increase their work-related and social skills. Programme staff identified obstacles to employment for 476 participants and made proposals to help them overcome these. Throughout the second part of the programme, these participants were provided with immediate assistance in finding employment, by enhancing the specific skills required to seek job and engage in the labour market. The Committee notes that, with the support of the Programme staff, 39 people were employed, five of them with financial support from the Agency. The Committee invites the Government to continue to provide updated information on activities undertaken to secure effective cooperation between the Employment Agency and private employment agencies. In this context, the Committee invites the Government to consider the possibility of ratifying the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181).