The construction branch union Nezavisnost will organize an hour-long warning strike on September 8, demanding the payment of salaries and social insurance deductions, reports BETA news agency.

Construction workers are also demanding that the state strongly sanction black market work and revise privatization deals, as well as that the building of apartments within the mass housing construction project start as soon as possible.

Nezavisnost union leader Ranko Drljevic said he expected about 80,000 people to take part in the strike. He also said it was difficult to organize a strike, because people were working in the field, on construction sites and on rivers, but pointed out that the situation had become unbearable.

According to him, the construction industry currently provides work for some 30,000 of the total 100,000 workers, but he stressed that the biggest problem is the black market, in which around 30% of construction workers are involved.

Drljevic added that the state of Serbia's construction sector was the worst in the last 50 years.