With the entry into force of the amendments to the Rulebook on Job Positions and Occupations in Respect of Which Pensionable Service Is Calculated with Extended Duration (“Official Gazette of the RS”, No. 25/2026, hereinafter: the “Rulebook”), the issue of so-called benefited service period has once again come into focus.
The Rulebook should not be viewed merely as a “list of occupations”, but rather as a regulatory framework which identifies job positions and occupations where work is particularly strenuous, hazardous or harmful to health, notwithstanding the application of occupational safety measures, where significant physiological strain and accelerated loss of working capacity may occur, as well as occupations whose performance is limited by age or conditioned by specific psychophysical abilities of the employee.
Relevant information for employers:
- The system of benefited service period under Serbian law is based on several principal categories of occupations, including in particular:
- jobs in mining and underground exploitation;
- jobs in the metallurgical, chemical, petrochemical and process industries;
- jobs in energy, thermal power, gas and infrastructure systems;
- jobs in transport, railway transport, aviation and other activities where the nature of work entails increased responsibility for the safety of people and systems;
- jobs involving protection, rescue, emergency response and other operational-security activities;
- jobs with an increased risk of injury at work, occupational diseases or continuous exposure to harmful working environment factors;
- jobs performed under particularly difficult working conditions, including work at heights and work involving increased physical and psychological strain as well as
- jobs where the performance of work is conditioned by the preservation of specific psychophysical abilities of the employee.
- The most significant amendments include:
- the expansion and further specification of job positions in ferrous metallurgy, where for employees working at blast furnaces, smelters and operators of cooling and energy systems, 12 months of work are calculated as 16 months of pensionable service;
- the introduction of work at heights, i.e. rope access work, as a new category subject to the same degree of extended service calculation;
- the clarification of benefited service entitlements for firefighters in the petrochemical industry;
- the inclusion of desulfurization activities in thermal power plants and further specification of positions in the energy sector and equipment maintenance, where 12 months of work are calculated as 14 months of pensionable service as well as
- amendments in the field of emergency medical services, where physicians performing field and transport duties have 12 months of work calculated as 15 months of pensionable service, while medical technicians and ambulance drivers have the same period calculated as 14 months of pensionable service.
- From the employers’ perspective, it is particularly important that entitlement to pensionable service calculated with extended duration is not assessed solely by reference to the formal job title, but rather by reference to the actual working conditions, the level of exposure to risks and the factual content of the duties performed by the employee. In practice, this may raise questions regarding the alignment of internal job classification acts with actual working conditions, the adequacy of risk assessments and occupational safety documentation, the proper calculation of contributions, as well as potential employee claims relating to the recognition of benefited service period.
For additional information or consultations, the Tasić & Partners team is at your disposal.