Serbian Occupational Safety and Health Act 2023: duties and fines

What the Occupational Safety and Health Act covers and whom it applies to

Zakon o bezbednosti i zdravlju na radu, the Occupational Safety and Health Act or "BZR Act" in everyday Serbian, governs the measures that prevent injuries at work, occupational diseases and work-related illness: employer duties, employee rights and duties, training, employee representatives, the Register of Injuries at Work, licences, supervision and penalties (Art. 1). State administration in this field is carried out by the Occupational Safety and Health Directorate (Uprava za bezbednost i zdravlje na radu) within the ministry responsible for labour.

It applies to every employer: state bodies, municipalities, companies, sole traders and natural persons who employ others, in all industries (Art. 2). The right to safety and health at work belongs not only to employees under an employment contract but also to people engaged outside employment, pupils and students on placements, volunteers, workers hired through youth cooperatives and anyone present in the working environment with the employer's knowledge (Art. 5). A sole trader working alone looks after their own safety under the rules for self-employed persons (Art. 43).

The official citation is: Zakon o bezbednosti i zdravlju na radu (Sl. glasnik RS No. 35/2023). The Act entered into force on 7 May 2023, the eighth day after publication, and on that day the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 2005 (Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 101/05, 91/15 and 113/17 - other statute) ceased to apply (Art. 112 and 113). A document citing a "safety and health officer" (lice za BZR) is quoting the old Act.

How the Act is structured

The Act has 113 articles in 17 chapters. The most important are:

• I Basic provisions (subject, scope, definitions, who has the right to safety at work)
• II Preventive measures
• III Employer duties and responsibilities (Art. 8-37)
• IV Employee rights and duties (Art. 38-42)
• VI Work from home and remote work (Art. 44 and 45)
• VII Organising safety and health work, the advisor and the associate (Art. 46-53)
• VIII Health protection at work, medical examinations (Art. 54-56)
• IX Employee representative and Safety and Health Committee (Art. 57-61)
• X Records, cooperation and reporting, injury reporting (Art. 62-67)
• XI Register of Injuries at Work (Art. 68 onwards)
• XV Supervision (Art. 91-99)
• XVI Penal provisions (Art. 100-107)
• XVII Transitional and final provisions (Art. 108-113)

The employer duties people search for most

General responsibility (Art. 9). The employer ensures the safety and health of employees in all its activities and at every level of work, and is not released from that responsibility by engaging a licensed company. It is released only for natural disasters and events beyond its control whose consequences could not have been avoided.

Risk assessment (Art. 16 and 17). A written risk assessment is adopted for all workplaces, with measures and deadlines for removing or reducing risks. It is amended for every new hazard, new workplace, new technology and change in working conditions. For high-risk jobs it sets, on the basis of an occupational medicine assessment, the special health requirements employees must meet. Failing to adopt it is an offence in the highest fine bracket (Art. 100(1)(13)).

General act (Art. 14). Rights and duties in this field are set out in a safety and health rulebook, work rules or a collective agreement; an employer with up to ten employees may set them out in the employment contract.

Safety advisor or associate (Art. 15, 46-50). Every employer appoints in writing a person for safety and health work: an advisor in high-risk industries (construction, manufacturing, agriculture, transport, healthcare), an associate elsewhere, with a professional exam and a licence. In service industries with up to 20 employees the employer may do the work personally after passing the exam. The advisor takes part in the risk assessment, organises training and equipment inspections, monitors injuries and may prohibit work where an immediate danger exists (Art. 50).

Safety training (Art. 33 and 34). Training is mandatory on hiring, on transfer, when new technology is introduced and when the work process changes; it takes place during working hours and cannot be charged to the employee. Periodic training is repeated at least every year for high-risk jobs and every three years for others. After a serious or fatal injury the employer retrains the staff of that unit within eight days (Art. 36).

Medical examinations (Art. 56). For high-risk jobs and night work the employer provides a pre-employment examination and periodic examinations during employment. If an examination shows the employee no longer meets the health requirements, they are transferred to another suitable job. Costs are borne by the employer.

Work permit (Art. 27). Before work at height, at depth, in confined spaces, in potentially explosive atmospheres, on energy installations, with hazardous chemicals and in zones of immediate danger, the employer issues a work permit and sets the procedure for issuing it in advance.

Construction sites (Art. 20-22). The start of operations, a separate unit and a change in the technological process are notified to the labour inspectorate at least eight days in advance (Art. 20). An employer working on a construction site files a notice of the start of works at least eight days beforehand, with a site layout plan when the works last more than three days (Art. 22). Industries handling hazardous substances and social-care institutions need a decision confirming that conditions are met before starting (Art. 21).

Records and insurance (Art. 62 and 67). Records are kept of high-risk jobs, injuries and occupational diseases, trained employees, equipment inspections, workplace environment testing and issued protective equipment. The employer insures employees against injury at work and occupational disease at its own expense.

Reporting an injury at work: the 24-hour rule

The reporting duty is set out in Art. 64. Every fatal, collective or serious injury at work, and every dangerous occurrence that could endanger employees, is reported by the employer to the competent labour inspectorate and the police immediately, and within 24 hours of the event at the latest, orally, in writing or electronically. A minor injury that leaves the employee unfit for work for more than three days is reported to the inspectorate within five working days. An occupational disease is reported within five days of the medical institution's opinion.

After the report the inspector must inspect immediately, and the employer must stop work at the place of the injury to preserve evidence (Art. 95). The employer also completes an injury report form and delivers it to the injured person, the health insurance fund (RFZO) and the Directorate (Art. 65). That report later serves the employee as the basic evidence that the injury happened at work, both for the 100% salary compensation during sick leave (Art. 115 of the Labour Act) and for a damages claim against the employer or its insurer. If the employer fails to report the injury, the employee may report it to the inspectorate personally, and does not lose the right to damages.

Employee rights

Right to information and training (Art. 38, 58 and 59). An employee has the right to be informed of the safety measures at their workplace and trained before starting work, to make proposals, and to be consulted on measures affecting their safety. The employer must inform employees and their representatives of the workplace risks, the inspectorate's measures and the injury records.

Right to refuse work (Art. 39 and 40). An employee may refuse to work when facing an immediate danger because the measures have not been implemented, when they lack the required medical examination or training, when overtime or night work would worsen their health according to the occupational medicine service, on defective equipment, and when no work permit has been issued. A written request goes to the employer; if the employer does not act within eight days, the employee applies to the labour inspectorate. In a serious, unavoidable and immediate danger the employee may stop work and leave the workplace without any adverse consequences, unless they caused damage intentionally or through gross negligence.

Employee representative and Committee (Art. 57 and 61). Employees elect one or more safety and health representatives; at least three form a Committee, and one representative is entitled to at least five paid hours a month for the role. They may demand measures from the employer, request an inspection and attend it, and may not be placed at a disadvantage for doing so.

Labour inspectorate and fines

Supervision is carried out by the ministry responsible for labour through labour inspectors (Art. 91), who may enter the premises at any time when employees are at work, request documentation and photograph the workplace (Art. 94). The inspector must prohibit work while an immediate danger persists, while defective equipment is in use, while someone works in a high-risk job without an examination or training, or until the employer implements the ordered measures (Art. 96); on a construction site also when a worker without a contract or social-insurance registration is found (Art. 97). An appeal against the inspector's decision goes to the minister within 15 days but does not suspend a prohibition of work, and the minister's decision may be challenged in an administrative dispute (Art. 98).

Fines fall into three brackets. The highest (Art. 100), 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 dinars for a company, 400,000 to 500,000 for a sole trader and 50,000 to 150,000 for the director, covers among other things the absence of a risk assessment, failure to appoint an advisor or associate, work without training, missing medical examinations, work without a work permit, failure to notify a construction site and failure to report a serious injury within 24 hours. The middle bracket (Art. 101), 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 dinars for a company, covers for example the absence of a general act, of a work-permit procedure and of a programme for the gradual removal of deficiencies. The third bracket (Art. 102) is 300,000 dinars for a company, for example for failing to notify the start of operations or to keep records. An employee who does not apply the measures, does not use protective equipment or fails to report a defect is fined 20,000 dinars (Art. 107).

Is there a new occupational safety and health act in 2025 or 2026?

The new Act is the 2023 Act, and it has not been amended since. Employers had to bring their operations into line within two years of its entry into force, that is by May 2025 (Art. 111), and the implementing regulations had to be adopted within 18 months (Art. 108). According to ministry announcements from May 2025, the deadline for certain obligations, including records, the risk assessment and equipment inspections, was moved by regulation to 1 January 2026. Amendments published at the end of December 2025 (Sl. glasnik RS No. 118/2025) pushed the start of four of those regulations (risk assessment, records, equipment and installation inspections, work at height) back again, to 1 July 2026. That is why 2025 and 2026 are described as the years of "full application" even though the Act itself has not changed. Before relying on a deadline from a regulation, check its current version.

Where to read the official text

The official text is available in the Legal Information System of the Republic of Serbia: Zakon o bezbednosti i zdravlju na radu at pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs. Inspection intervals, the content of the risk assessment and the report forms are set by ministry regulations, so check those as well.

Sources

• Occupational Safety and Health Act (Zakon o bezbednosti i zdravlju na radu, Sl. glasnik RS No. 35/2023), Art. 1, 2, 5, 9, 14-17, 20-22, 27, 33, 34, 36, 38-50, 56-59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 68, 91, 94-102, 107, 108 and 111-113
• Labour Act (Zakon o radu, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 24/2005 ... 109/2025 - other statute), Art. 115
• Law on Contracts and Torts (Zakon o obligacionim odnosima, Sl. list SFRJ No. 29/78 ... Sl. glasnik RS No. 18/2020), Art. 173 and 174
• Occupational Safety and Health Directorate, Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs
• Labour Inspectorate
• A consolidated text of the Act and news on the regulation deadlines are also available on paragraf.rs