The new labour minister, Zorica Kovacevic, promised to include all stakeholders in the consultation to “complete the text” and said “there is no need to hurry since the final deadline for its adoption is 2017.”

However, trade unions, which have intensified their campaign since March, see no need to amend a legislation already modified in 2011.

The changes were requested by AmCham and five other employers’ organisations, Montenegrin media reported.

They received the support of the Montenegrin Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, after a meeting early March with the American lobby group aimed at discussing ways to “improve business climate” and “remove business barriers” in Montenegro.

On 25 March, the daily Montenegrin Dan summed up the employers’ main demands as remove article 25 of the labour code, which guarantees permanent contracts to workers.

Employers and AmCham also want to “limit to three years” the possibility for workers, guaranteed by law, to “reclaim unpaid dues” from labour.

Other countries in the region, such as Serbia, have already imposed a similar time limit when it comes to claiming unpaid wages, whereas the existing Montenegrin labour law is much more favourable to workers’ rights.

Employers also suggested that ’general collective agreements’ be abolished, Dan wrote.

Srdja Kekovic, the Secretary General of the Union of Free Trade Unions (UFTUM), told the paper that since 2011, “employers, and especially foreign investors led by the American Chamber of Commerce, have been campaigning and trying to present the Labour Law as a barrier to business” and asking to negotiate with each employees “behind closed doors.”

The proposed changes are “unsustainable” both under domestic and international law, he said.

Lidija Pejovic from the Montenegrin trade union’s women’s section called on the Montenegrin authorities to focus on abusive employers instead of undermining labour standards.

“Some employers force their employees to sign blank working contracts, without an agreement on contract termination, so that they can get rid of employees more easily,” she said.

FDIs and labour standards

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is the core argument for employers’ organisations and the government to justify the amendments to the labour legislation in Montenegro.

Despite its tiny size and population of 621,000 people, coastal Montenegro is an attractive destination for foreign investors in sectors such as tourism, energy and agriculture, Ivana Jovovic, from AmCham Montenegro, told reporters.

There are currently 40 US companies working in Montenegro, 28 of which are members of the Chamber.

Despite several written requests, the Montenegrin US Chamber of Commerce did not comment for this article.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), FDI accounted for up to 40 per cent of Montenegro’s GDP in 2009 and is “therefore a key driver of the growth of the national economy”, Antonio Graziosi from the ILO office for Central and Eastern Europe told Equal Times in a written interview.

Asked to comment on the influence of FDIs on labour standards in Montenegro, Graziosi wrote that “given their weight in the gross domestic product of the Western Balkan countries, foreign investors inevitably had an important influence in the labour market and labour law reform processes undertaken in recent years.

“Whether this influence has actually undermined workers’ rights, this may be of course a matter of different opinions among the social partners and the constituents involved,” he wrote.

However, it is important to note that in Montenegro, as in other Western Balkans countries, labour legislation has been going through a process of “liberalisation” in order to make the labour market more flexible, Graziosi stressed.

“Labour law reforms undertaken in most Western Balkan countries in recent years have often included more stringent criteria to engage into collective bargaining” as well as “simplification of firing procedures,” Graziosi added.

AmCham’s influence

AmCham’s influence on labour standards has often been denounced, especially in emerging economies.

Similar complaints to those of the Montenegrin trade unions have been raised by labour experts in Georgia.

Although the reformed labour code of that former Soviet country brought significant improvement for workers, a number of areas were not adequately regulated, such as the terms of labour contract, employment termination or working hours.

Concerns were raised at the time about the impact of the American Chamber of Commerce’s lobbying in the final version of the law.

Back then, the Chamber was also accused by an American think-tank, Campaign for America’s Future, of having dire influence over labour standards worldwide.

“The United States Chamber of Commerce has been transformed from a relatively staid pro-business group into a cynical, large-dollar organization that trades the appearance of legitimacy for ready cash,” said Richard Eskow, author of the think tank’s report The United States Chamber of Commerce: North America’s Dangerous Export.

AmCham’s practices have also been denounced by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in a briefing paper.

The US lobby group was openly accused of “defending child labour” in Uzbekistan, lobbying against worker protection in free trade agreements between the US and third countries and promoting environmental destruction, including support for fracking.

The Chamber is believed to have spent some US$75 million for lobbying activity in 2013, according to figures from the Centre for Responsive Politics.

In its list of priorities for 2015 on labour, AmCham stated that it will “oppose efforts to increase the minimum wage and to index the minimum wage to inflation.” It will also “oppose efforts to mandate paid sick leave” and will “advocate pro-employer provisions in priority international labour.”

The Chamber’s long list of priorities regarding environment and the energy sector are also cause for concern, especially in the US.

The document states that the Chamber will “oppose congressional and administrative actions that would undermine or restrict hydraulic fracturing and its ability to develop the enormous shale oil and natural gas reserves across the country.”

Montenegro’s trade unions, which only recently became members of the European Trade Union Confederation, have announced that they will use all the expertise of their European counterparts to stop the new labour law.

“If the American Chamber of Commerce has to decide whether someone will be hired on a permanent basis or whether their past employment will be valued, what is then the purpose of our public services at all?” Predrag Raznjatovic, of UFTUM, asked.