The Internship Law (“Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia” number 98/19 and 103/21) introduced a novelty in the labor law legislation of the Republic of North Macedonia, i.e. a clear and precise system was established for the employment of interns, ways of securing them, duration of the employment relationship, amount of compensation that must be paid to them, as well as all other details regarding the engagement of the specific category of Employees.
Our Law Firm offers appropriate legal assistance to legal entities in the Republic of North Macedonia that have the need of hiring interns in the course of their business operations. In the following text, we will present the most important details regarding the hiring of interns.
First of all, as a precondition for the employment of interns in accordance with the applicable labor law legislation, it is necessary for the Company – Employer to publish an advertisement for an intern in the Employment Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia, whereby at least 3 (three) working days must pass from the publication of the advertisement to the registration and employment of a specific person as an intern.
The need for an intern, apart from being published in the Employment Agency, can also be published on the website of the Company, on LinkedIn or on another medium, whereby such announcement should contain information about the terms of the internship, as well as the expected goals for hiring the intern, the tasks and the process of the internship.
An intern can be any person who:
An intern can also be a person who has not reached 18 (eighteen) years of age, but in this case one of his/her parents will need to sign the Internship Agreement.
The intern can be hired by the Company for a period of maximum 6 (six) months.
The compensation of the intern hired full-time must be from 42% to 74% of the minimum net salary in the Republic of North Macedonia for internship work up to three months, while in the amount of the minimum net salary in the Republic of North Macedonia for internship work over three months, counted from the fourth to the sixth month.
If the intern is hired on a part-time basis, the compensation for the internship will be calculated in proportion to the time spent on the internship.
The intern has the right to a leave in a duration of 2 (two) days/month if he/she works on full time basis (40 hours/week), i.e. 1 (one) day/month if he/she works part-time.
The Law provides for a maximum number of interns that can be hired by the Company depending on how many permanent employees the Company has.
So for example, a Company that has from 1 (one) to 5 (five) employees can hire 1 (one) intern, while a Company that has from 151 (one hundred and fifty one) to 250 (two hundred and fifty) employees can hire up to 15 interns.
If you need additional information and details about the employment of interns in the Republic of North Macedonia and according to the labor law legislation of the country, feel free to contact our Law Firm, which has employed specialists who deal with labor law and who can offer you answers and appropriate solutions within the legal framework of the applicable labor law legislation.
Ljupka Naumoska Gjorgjievska
