According to the available data of the Center for Emancipation Policies (CPE) for 2024, in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sector, according to official data, 60.725 people were employed[1]. The legal minimum net salary was EUR 407, and the average salary in the textile industry that year was EUR 521, which is about 60% of the average net salary in Serbia and about 40% of the living wage (minimum monthly income sufficient for a dignified life).
[1] https://cpe.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/CCC-ProfilZemljeSrbija-CPE-2024.pdf
Author: Ivana Gordić Perc
The difficult position of women, who make up about 80 % employees in the textile industry, as well as pensioners who have spent their working lives in this sector, is a consequence of decades of collapse of labor rights and transition processes. After years spent on the verge of survival, they now face some of the worst conditions ever, in a system that treats their workforce as expendable.
The collapse of companies and cooperatives in Serbia in the 1990s and onwards was orchestrated, says Radmila Gujanicic, an activist and fighter for women’s rights:
“The textile industry, as a low-profit industry with numerous challenges and a majority female workforce, was the first to be hit and an easy target. This was a period when the public was not allowed to speak out against ‘young democracy’ and privatization, which was presented as a path to building a more efficient social order. People were less important and they made a huge sacrifice. They managed as they could. Women with children in school and men going to work abroad were the most vulnerable social group and bore the heavy burden of the transition period. While the Social Accounting Service still existed, salaries could not be paid without calculated and paid taxes and contributions. All were registered and had years of employment. The period of mass job loss and struggle for survival was used for wide exploitation. People worked for the minimum wage, wages were paid ‘illegally’ and were not insured. This is reflected today in the amount of their pensions, so many have to work in old age, if their health has permitted them.”
This said conversation raises the issues of long-term changes in the position of women in Serbia, from industrial centers to rural areas. About how their social and economic position has changed over time, as well as the differences in the unemployment of women in the countryside and in the city, in relation to the level of education and available opportunities, Gujancic explains:
“I am more focused on observing every day, hidden poverty. I see older women with low pensions, and I really sympathize with them. If they are healthy, they are active and work in different ways to fill the money deficit, but when they have health problems or disabilities and are unable to work and do not have support — it becomes a source of great poverty. As for women workers in the textile industry, I know that in the past women received apartments or loans to build houses and that their years of employment were duly paid. From 2000 onwards, there were several phases. Even today, many women tell me that they work ‘illegally’. This means that they will retire with insufficient years of pensionable service and, although they have worked for a long time, they will have small pensions. The state does not deal enough with people in such a situation. So far, this social burden falls on the citizens themselves and affects their health and quality of life. The position of rural women who provide for their livelihoods by working in agriculture remains extremely unfavorable. These women are most often not entitled to a salary for their daily work, nor do they have access to basic labor rights, such as maternity leave and sick leave in case of illness. In the rare situations when they are entitled to a pension, its amount is extremely low, which is particularly worrying given the length and intensity of their working day, as well as the fact that the survival of the household is largely based on their work.
A particularly vulnerable group are older women in rural areas, who face limited availability of health, social and other public services, which further deepens their social and economic marginalization.”
The importance of women’s education and economic empowerment
The Association for the Labor Rights of Women-ROZA has so far held more than 60 workshops which received more than 700 students of the final grades of secondary vocational schools from 16 places in Serbia. Activists explain their labor rights and protection mechanisms, or situations they encounter very quickly – as soon as they enter the labor market.
At the beginning of the workshop, it often seems that the topic seems “boring” or “vague” to them, but as a rule, the situation becomes completely different at the end, Sara Lupsor Curcin, coordinator of ROSA reports the atmosphere from the sessions: “Through evaluation questionnaires, we see that 96% of students believe that what they learned at the workshop will be useful, and that such workshops and knowledge are needed in formal education. Based on what we see in workshops and through community work, young girls very often enter the world of work without basic information about their rights. Girls, especially in rural areas and smaller towns, have very early work experience: seasonal, temporary, part-time or unpaid. Many have already worked through youth cooperatives or without a contract but often do not recognize that they are deprived of basic protection, or what the employer is obliged to provide them.”
According to her, in the fieldwork, they noticed a pattern: “The closer an educational profile is to low-payment industries, the weaker the knowledge of rights, and this is not accidental. Systematically, young women continue to be professionally oriented in areas that are traditionally considered ‘female‘: textiles, trade, care, maintenance, administration; and these are the sectors with the highest degree of precariousness, minimum wages and high exposure to the risk of mobbing and labor rights violations. For girls who later end up in the textile or other industries, this means that they most often enter into employment as completely ‘unprotected by knowledge’ and rely on what they are told, because: ‘that’s how it’s done everywhere’. Young women most often enter a system that is set up to teach them only obedience. That is why early education is crucial, not only for the knowledge of rights, but also for the confidence to recognize when the line has been crossed.”
Rada Gujancic recalls the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program, which she launched in 2000, aimed at women to secure their own incomes and economic independence. More than 100 unemployed women were part of the program, and just after two months, 38 of them got a job or established their own agency, with the support of donor funds and active employment measures, although the long-term results were undermined by corruption, party employment and monopolization. In 2010, with the help of NES funds and a donor, she founded Reateks, a social enterprise from which some women retired:
“The program was based on the principles of sustainable development, but we had the freedom to employ women with multiple forms of social exclusion — women who would otherwise never have achieved seniority or retired. This is one of its greatest values. The program never became self-sustainable, but women were extremely motivated to maintain it, and their volunteer work contributed greatly. The cooperative and its principles are completely in line with my convictions, especially the principle of self-help, which I grew up with: ‘U se i u svoje kljuse’ (drag myself up by my bootstraps.“
In many cases, losing a job is not only a loss of income, but also a loss of self-confidence and the feeling that they have any control over their own lives. Sara Lupsor Curcin says that when working with women from different sectors, they recognize several permanent patterns:
- 1) Loss of job often means loss of dignity.
- 2) Precarious work destroys health, but also interpersonal relationships.
- 3) Fear dominates.
She continues by saying that in the textile industry, women talk about a combination of several things: “working under constantly increasing production quotas, limited use of breaks and toilets, poor heating and ventilation conditions, constant pressure from superiors. When it comes to health, we were most often told about spinal problems, dizziness, ‘small’ injuries, occasional fainting, but most often about psychological abuse. According to testimonies from our support and research groups, women face constant pressures and work organization that is very often not in line with real human capacities. Very few women want to speak publicly about experiences, not because they do not want change, but because they have been taught that they are interchangeable. In many environments, a job in a factory is considered the only safe and stable option for a woman. Risking this job, even if it is bad, is perceived as risking the livelihood, often of the entire family. In safe, closed groups, women speak very openly and in detail. They talk about being insulted, transferred, humiliated, that they don’t know, or have no one to turn to. The key thing is that women want security, not heroism. Rarely does a woman want to be a ‘brave example’. They all want the same thing: to do a job that they can live on normally (with dignity), without fear. That is why in ROZA we insist on the protection of anonymity, and that is why we do not go public with the names of companies, let alone workers. In this, and in other sectors, the picture is similar, most face a lack of security, earnings insufficient for basic living needs, and the idea that they should be grateful that they have a job at all.”
Solidarity and joint struggle are key to achieving better living and working conditions for women
Empathy, solidarity and joint struggle are needed for a fairer and more dignified position of women in the world of work, according to both Rada and Sara. Their experiences working with women are very emotional and moving.
The motive is very simple, we do this because we know that the world of work does not function fairly, because we have experienced all the bad sides ourselves, and realized that only by joining together can we achieve something, says Sara. She adds that the motive is that she knows that women’s labor rights are not a secondary issue, but something that determines whether they will be able to buy food, whether they will have access to health care, whether they will be able to rent an apartment or educate children, or leave a violent relationship:
“And what is beautiful? The most beautiful thing is what you can’t see from the outside. Beautiful is that moment when you see that someone’s perspective has changed. When a young woman realizes that she is not ‘spoiled’ because she wants a contract and registration, when a worker in a support group or through an individual conversation for the first time speaks out loud about her experience, or tells us: ‘For the first time, I have the feeling that someone is standing by me.’. Beautiful is also the fact that we know that we are not alone.”
Rada says of herself that one of the women who went through all the difficulties of the transition period and had a strong motive to fight for both her and others: “Working in a women’s group, aimed at fighting for women’s rights, released my energy, and contact with feminist organizations, theory and practice was a great support for me. One sentence is especially dear to me and always warms my heart and soul. After one workshop, a woman said: ‘Dear Rada, after the workshop with you, words that I should not have thought of, I now say to the fullest: I will, I won’t, I want…’”
The author is a journalist at the Research and Analytical Center Voice of Vojvodina. She has also been awarded several prestigious journalism awards.
This article was written within the framework of the Decent Work platform, led by the Musine Kokalari Institute for Social Policy and the Center for Emancipation Policies in Serbia, a project supported by the European Fund for the Balkans.