Catch your breath

Christophe Solioz explores the use of ‘Pathétique’ from Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony in 1395 days without red, a 2011 film project focused on the Siege of Sarajevo, and locates it in the complex ‘age of immunology’ in which we now live.

Material deprivation and employment status in post-transition: Evidence from North Macedonia

Poverty and social exclusion are often associated with unemployment, but being employed is not always sufficient to provide decent living conditions for workers and their families. In this context, the aim of this article, drawing on SILC micro data, is to assess the underlying causes of severe material deprivation in North Macedonia from the point of view of employment status, particularly the differences between employed and unemployed workers. The results show that employed workers face a much greater risk of severe material deprivation if they are positioned in the so-called secondary labour market; while the unemployed with low capital accumulation and those living in households with low work intensity face the highest risks of all. North Macedonia’s adjustment mechanisms do help cushion the consequences, but the article concludes with several policy recommendations for additional action to reduce severe material deprivation covering: education and training; active labour market policies; unionisation and collective bargaining; wage subsidies and taxation; and a statutory minimum wage.

‘The skies are empty and the continent is overflowing with insoluble problems’ – The Covid-19 crisis in the western Balkans and the failure of the EU

Many societies are still in the stranglehold of the coronavirus. China, South Korea and Taiwan have apparently overcome the pandemic but problems that are almost impossible to resolve are piling up in Europe. Despite the joint vaccination procurement campaign, the EU in particular is struggling to regulate the crisis domestically. The states of the western Balkans which have been relying on an EU perspective for years and which have repeatedly been put off, have also been hit hard, piling problems on top of health services that are, for a number of reasons, already seriously jeopardised. In view of the worsening situation - countries in central and south-eastern Europe are over-represented among those with the highest numbers of Covid-19 related deaths - we take a closer look at current practicalities and political realities in these ‘high incidence areas’, as the region is currently known (according to the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft). This article focuses on the role of the EU, and how views of this are changing in the region, as well as that being played by other, apparently more nimble and agile, powers.

The Dayton Agreement and social reform: Omne principium difficile est

The Dayton Agreement rests on the principle of establishing a self-sustaining system that respects the multinational and multiconfessional structure of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, composed of entities with independent constitutive, legislative, executive and judicial functions. The organisation and functioning of the constitutionally-determined institutions of power in BiH is based on the constituent nature of the nations, enclosed in amendments to the entity constitutions made after the 2000 Decision of the Constitutional Court on the Constituency of Peoples, which regulate representation and the manner of the protection of the interests of the peoples. This article proceeds from the point that vital discussion on constitutional regulation is leading to a marginalisation of the discussion on harmonising domestic legislation with the EU acquis, conditio sine qua non in terms of fulfilling the requirements of the Stabilisation and Accession Agreement, not least in the area of labour law, and gaining admission to the EU. Above all, society is only changed through reform in which - panta rei - everything flows.

The influence of Covid-19 on the field of social security – The example of the Republic of Serbia

This wide-ranging article takes a theoretical look at the implications of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) virus for the concept of the securitisation of a state, encompassing the debate about whether social security occupies a place within securitisation studies. The authors point to, and explore, the concurrent presence of three social phenomena with global effects: digitalisation and business automation; securitisation of the systems of health and social protection; and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic with all its disruptive potential. They also consider closely how these phenomena relate to the already-troubled social position in the Republic of Serbia, alluding also to the deliberate use of the concept of securitisation to convince the population of the need to take drastic safeguarding steps, including the announcement of a state of emergency. The authors conclude broadly on the implications that Covid-19 has for socio-economic development, that social security does play a role within securitisation and, with a sharp prod to nationalisms as a response to the virus, that global problems and risks require global solutions.

States of emergency and the legal questions over human rights restrictions

This article starts from the premise that human rights are the singular most important achievement won in political struggle. However, there remains a gap between the ideal and the practical reality which gives room for debate as to how, and in what circumstances, such rights can be restricted when a state of emergency arises. Within this framework, special attention is paid to the provisions of certain international documents related to the field of human rights as well as within a state’s own national law. The article discusses in particular the possible abuses of human rights in the situation of a state of emergency and the legal safeguards that have been put in place. The article presents the specifics of the constitutional system of the Republic of North Macedonia, with a special analysis of the role of constitutional courts in the protection of human rights during a state of emergency, and concludes with a look at the declaration of a state of emergency in Macedonia during the Covid-19 pandemic and at the legality of the actions of the various institutions involved.

Working conditions and protective measures in multinational companies during the pandemic: The case of Inditex

The Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected working life. Workers who have to earn money to proceed with their lives have had to work during this time, even if they did not want to do so. Consequently, the question of whether adequate protective measures have been taken in the workplace for workers who have had to work during the pandemic is a critical one. In this article, the measures taken especially in respect of employees of multinational companies are examined in view of a survey of employees of Inditex, the Spanish ‘fast fashion’ company. Following a review of the literature on the place of multinational companies, along with their supply chains, in the engine room of global capitalism and on research into the working conditions of shopping mall employees, setting an appropriate context for the survey findings, the article explores what the findings reveal. Malls might well be new venues of insecurity in terms of the threat posed to the need for workplaces to be safe and secure for employees, but Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed both the lack of protection and the risks which workers in such environments face on a day-to-day basis.

Covid-19 implications and the realisation of labour rights in the Republic of North Macedonia

The Covid-19 virus presents an invisible menace of major proportions. We have as yet no clear study of the causes of the virus - or, more precisely, its precise aetiology is disputed - yet it has had colossal implications. It has imposed a global public discourse which has severely eroded both collective and individual sense and consciousness. This article offers some thoughts on the social implications of the pandemic as regards labour in the early days after the virus arrived in North Macedonia, drawing on media reports of particular developments and focusing in particular on violations of employment rights and the problems of workers likely to be most at risk. The break in economic activities, a (further) fall in standards of living and the decline in GDP and, hence, the loss of jobs and the overall increase in unemployment rates further deepen the sense of (inter)national crisis. We still do not know how long this will last and the death toll that will ultimately be reached; furthermore, countries that are already struggling will, at that point, face a disproportionately sizable task in achieving social reconstruction and rehabilitation.