Law on Safety and Health at Work (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 35/2023), effective from May 7, 2023, aimed to enhance the existing safety system and prevent workplace injuries through the introduction of mandatory medical examinations upon employee request, mandatory periodic medical examinations at most every five years, and mandatory periodic employee training, particularly for high-risk positions or positions where death or serious bodily injury has occurred.
Among the newly introduced provisions is the obligation for all employers, regardless of the nature of their activity, to insure employees against workplace injuries and occupational diseases to ensure compensation for damages. According to the legal definition, a workplace injury is considered an injury to the insured that occurs in spatial, temporal, and causal connection with the performance of the work for which the individual is insured, caused by direct and short-term mechanical, physical, or chemical action, sudden changes in body position, sudden body load, or other changes in the physiological state of the body. An accident covered by insurance is, on the other hand, defined by insurance companies as, generally, a sudden and unforeseen event independent of the will of the insured, resulting in death, total or partial disability, temporary incapacity for work, or health impairment requiring medical assistance.
In this context, for insurance claims to be valid, it is relevant that the injury is work-related or occurred in connection with work and that the employee is not responsible for the injury, meaning it was not caused by the employee’s own actions.
Employers who fail to meet this obligation are subject to a fine ranging from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 dinars for legal entities, and from 30,000 to 150,000 dinars for the responsible person within the legal entity.
However, businesses have a two-year period from the effective date of the Law to comply with its provisions, making the deadline for employee insurance and other obligations under the Law on Safety and Health at Work May 7, 2025.