The position of employed people in Serbia is very difficult and it cannot be expected that it will improve soon, so the workers will have to fight to preserve their rights, Zoran Mihajlovic, the vice-president of the Association of Independent Trade Union of Serbia, said on Monday.

Workers' rights are yet to be increasingly violated, Mihajlovic said on the occasion of marking the International Workers' Day, May 1, adding that one of the reasons is the economic crisis, which led to protests and strikes in many other countries due to a reduction of workers' rights.

Unemployment is a big problem in Serbia, and it is not triggered just by the crisis but also by unsuccessful privatizations of enterprises. Mihajlovic said that "a major impact" on the labor law is expected to take place and qualified as problematic stricter conditions for retirement.

There are no possibilities to build up the pension fund and this will lead to an increase of the years of service needed to obtain pensions, he noted.

He also pointed out that the SSSS will not hold any protest rallies on May 1, since they had bad experiences in previous years. "The election campaign would hinder the protest, since we do not want it to become a political rally. We want to avoid that," Mihajlovic said.