28.02.2019.
Communication
In regard to media reports about calling up reserves for training, the Ministry of Defence wishes to inform the public that this year they carried out regular call-up of citizens eligible for military duty transferred to the reserve forces, who are over the age of 30 and had not done military service. During the year, in accordance with the needs of the Serbian Armed Forces, several hundreds of citizens eligible for military duty from this category will be called up for training to acquire basic military skills.
Article 79a of the Law on Military, Labour and Material Obligations provides for the training of citizens for the needs of the defence of the country. The abovementioned article of the Law defines the categories of citizens to which the said training refers, as well as the categories for whose training the Ministry of Defence is main responsible authority. Specific training of citizens refers to persons eligible for military duty transferred to the reserve forces, who are over the age of 30 and had not done military service. The training is being carried out with the aim to create another source for manning the units of the Serbian Armed Forces with younger reserves having corresponding specialties, along with the reserve forces personnel who have done military service with arms and who have already been trained. In the future, these persons will be called up for training in accordance with the plans and needs for filling up reserve force of the Serbian Armed Forces.
Women, in accordance with Article 3 of the Law on Military, Labour and Material Obligations, on the principle of voluntariness that is not binding, may be entered into military records, voluntarily serve the military term with arms and be transferred to the reserve forces. Then, all rights and obligations apply to women just as they apply for men.
We recall that in October 2018, in accordance with the said article of the Law, traininig of reserves who had not done military service was organised for the first time. The first group of persons eligible for military duty, who were transferred to the reserve forces (persons over the age of 30) but had not done military service, were then deployed to the centres for basic training of the Serbian Armed Forces for the first stage of training – basic training. So it is about the untrained members of the reserve forces. This year, it has been planned to deploy them to the centers for specialised training of the Serbian Armed Forces to pass the specialised training.
Also, this year, two terms have been planned, in May and November, for deploying the mentioned categories of persons from the reserve force to the basic training in the training centers of the Serbian Armed Forces.
Training of persons consists of basic training that has two stages. The first stage of the training lasts 15 working days and the second phase, specialist training, lasts also 15 working days. The entire training process is realised in two parts, during two calendar years (each lasting 15 working days in a calendar year). After completing the training process, the persons will be assigned to the reserve forces of the Serbian Armed Forces.
Pursuant to Article 49 of the Law on Military, Labor and Material Obligations, the reserve service lasts until the end of the year in which the person is reaching the age of 60 years, and the purpose of implementing the said training is to train younger categories of persons of the age between 30-35 years.
Persons from the reserve forces who have an employment contract and are called up to training are protected by the Labor Law in terms of retaining all rights arising from the employment. During the fulfilling of ther obligation, the Ministry of Defence pays the salary compensation in the amount of their average salary in the previous 12 months prior to the call-up, while the person in the reserve forces who independently performs the activity, the payment of compensation shall be made at the level of the base from which they pay the obligatory social security contribution
Responding to the call-up for training is mandatory, and non-response entails penalties provided by law.
