On 18 November 2016, the Rulebook on the Content and Manner of Keeping Records on Employees and Other Persons Engaged in work (Rulebook) has been published in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) with the aim of regulating in detail the employers' obligation to maintain relevant records, as provided for in Article 43 of the FBiH labor law (Law). The Rulebook shall enter into force on 26 November 2016.

The Rulebook regulates in detail the content and the manner of keeping records on employees, records on other persons engaged in work, as well as records on working hours. These records may be kept in a written form as a book or electronically.

The period of retention depends on the type of the record; whereas records on employees must be retained permanently, records on other persons engaged in work must be retained for at least five years from the day of cessation of their work, and records on working hours for at least five years, except in the event the employer is aware of a labor dispute for which the record may be relevant, when the record must be retained until the valid completion of the dispute.

The appropriate misdemeanor fines, as specified in the Law, for employers who do not keep records on their employees or who keep records contrary to the prescribed manner, range from BAM 1.000,00 to BAM 3.000,00, and for a repeated misdemeanor from BAM 5.000,00 to BAM 10.000,00.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.