Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant provisions of the Recast Directive)

• Author: Krstic, Ivana
• Pages: 58-63

58

8 Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant

provisions of the Recast Directive)

8.1 General (legal) context

8.1.1 Surveys and reports on the specific difficulties of self-employed workers

The number of self-employed is very high, and in 2018, even 31.64 % of all workers were

self-employed workers.168 However, self-employed workers are faced with some barriers.

One survey showed that women’s entrepreneurship in rural areas is constrained by limited

ownership of farmland.169 If rural women buy or inherit land, tradition obliges them to

register the land in the names of their husbands, or other male relatives. This practice

prevents women from starting or joining agricultural cooperatives. Even if they have

farms, their jobs are unofficial, as payments are not officially registered at the Statistical

Office. Another problem in the agrarian sector is mainly related to the impact of tradition

and educational structure between inhabitants in the rural area. In order to start their own

business, women need governmental support in education programmes, business

development, as well as in promotion and marketing.170 Also, women are faced with

difficulties like credit access, market information, potential market access in business

activities, so implementation of innovation is not as fast as business led by men.171 In one

questionnaire, women entrepreneurs identified the main barriers to their business as: lack

of information (60 %), unfair competition (60 %), negative attitudes of the environment

(20 %), difficult access to financing (20 %) and lack of family support (20 %).172

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is concerned about

the limited number of women entrepreneurs, and encourages the State to enhance

entrepreneurship opportunities.173

8.1.2 Other issues

In order to understand women entrepreneurs in Serbia, it is important to highlight that

their dominant financing is by banks, followed by relatives and friends. In addition, grants

from the state/international financial organisations have also been used in business

financing, but to a much lesser extent due to complicated administrative procedures.174

However, their sales level increased from 10 % (in 2017) to 20 % (in 2018) due to

increased investment in promotional activities, employees training programmes, as well

as stronger state support for the development of women entrepreneurship in Serbia in the

past few years.175 Women also believe that for improving their business performance, it is

important to organise fairs, conferences, and organised gatherings, but not frequently, as

they are not able to attend them due to their family responsibilities.176

168 Macrotrends, Serbia Self-employed, Total,

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/serbia/SRB/SL.EMP.SELF.ZS/self-employed-total-percentage-total-

employment-modeled-ilo-estimate.

169 Women's Access to Economic Opportunities in Serbia, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit, the

World Bank, March 2016, 26.

170 Maksimovi G., Otović S., Demirović D., Vermezović T., (2016), A review investigating agrarian female

entrepreneurship in the Republic of Serbia, Ekonomika poljoprivrede, no. 1, 29 - 46.

171 Jovanović O., Women Entrepreneurship in Serbia - Potentials and Constraints, Journal of Women's

Entrepreneurship and Education, no. 3-4, 2018, 64.

172 Jovanović O., Women Entrepreneurship in Serbia - Potentials and Constraints, Journal of Women's

Entrepreneurship and Education, no. 3-4, 2018, 69.

173 CEDAW, Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Serbia, 14 March 2019, 15.

174 Jovanović O., Women Entrepreneurship in Serbia - Potentials and Constraints, Journal of Women's

Entrepreneurship and Education, no. 3-4, 2018, 67.

175 Jovanović O., Women Entrepreneurship in Serbia - Potentials and Constraints, Journal of Women's

Entrepreneurship and Education, no. 3-4, 2018, 68.

176 Jovanović O., Women Entrepreneurship in Serbia - Potentials and Constraints, Journal of Women's

Entrepreneurship and Education, no. 3-4, 2018, 70.