A company employing people in Montenegro is supervised under at least three separate laws, each with its own inspectorate and its own fine schedule. They do not communicate, they do not offset against each other, and a single arrangement — an undocumented foreign worker, a contract that was never handed over, a camera pointed at the wrong corridor — can produce liability under more than one of them at the same time.
This note sets out the three exposures that catch foreign-owned companies most often: employing a foreign national without the right permission, ordinary labour-law breaches, and workplace surveillance. In each case the fine ranges are given with the article that imposes them, and the personal exposure of the responsible person is stated separately from the company's.
Employing a foreign national without the right permission
The regime here is one of the most misdescribed in English-language material about Montenegro, and the errors run in both directions.
There is no separate foreign employment act. A statute of that name existed — Zakon o zapošljavanju stranaca, Sl. list CG 22/08 and 32/11 — but it was repealed. The entire regime for employing foreign nationals now sits inside the Zakon o strancima (Sl. list CG 12/2018, 3/2019, 86/2022, 77/2024, 3/2026). Any guide still citing a standalone foreign employment law is describing a repealed statute.
The employer penalties are in član 210 of the Zakon o strancima:
| Who | Fine |
|---|---|
| Legal person | €1,000 – €10,000 |
| Responsible person in the legal person | €300 – €2,000 |
| Entrepreneur | €300 – €6,000 |
Under član 210 stav 4, a prohibition on carrying on the activity for up to six months may also be imposed.
Two corrections are worth making explicitly, because both circulate widely.
There is no per-worker multiplier. The fine is not multiplied by the number of undocumented workers found. Several guides state or imply that it is; the article does not provide for it.
The often-quoted range of €500 to €20,000 is wrong for this offence. That figure belongs to other statutes, not to član 210.
A separate structural point matters for anyone planning to bring in workers through an agency abroad. The route permitting the supply of workers through a foreign agency — the provisions at član 68 stav 3 tačka 3 and članovi 75a to 75g — is deferred by član 221b until Montenegro's accession to the European Union. It is not a currently available channel, whatever an intermediary may say. Our own position here is that of a registered employment intermediary coordinating with licensed agencies and advising on the legal framework; we are not a leasing agency and do not act as an employer of record. The permitting side is dealt with in our note on work permits in Montenegro.
Labour law: two separate fine tiers
The Zakon o radu does not have one penalty article but two, and they carry different ranges. Which one applies depends on which obligation was breached.
Član 208 is the heavier tier: a fine of €2,000 to €20,000 for a legal person. Its list covers, among many others, not having an internal organisation and job-systematisation act where the employer has more than ten employees; not keeping at the workplace the activity approval, a copy of the employment contract and the compulsory social insurance registration; failing to conclude an employment contract in accordance with the Act; failing to pay salary monthly; not delivering the salary calculation; failing to carry out a change of employer in accordance with the transfer-of-undertaking provisions; and failing to pay outstanding salaries and contributions within 30 days of the employment ending. Under stav 2 the responsible person in the legal person faces €200 to €2,000, and under stav 3 an entrepreneur faces €500 to €6,000.
Član 209 is the lighter tier: €1,000 to €10,000 for a legal person. It covers a different list — failing to protect employees' rights under the equality and protection provisions; concluding an employment contract contrary to the Act's requirements; concluding a contract with a person under 18 contrary to the Act; requesting prohibited categories of data from a candidate at the contracting stage; failing to hand the employee a copy of the employment contract on the day they start work; failing to request and consider the trade union's opinion where the Act requires it; not enabling employees to exercise trade union rights freely; and not keeping records of the contracts the Act requires to be recorded. Under stav 2 the responsible person faces €100 to €1,000, and under stav 3 an entrepreneur faces €500 to €5,000.
The item most often missed is the simplest: a copy of the signed contract has to be in the employee's hands on the day they start work, and failing that is a listed misdemeanour rather than a paperwork irregularity.
What an inspector asks for first, and the dates attached to it
Several items in član 208 are not really about employment policy at all — they are about what physically exists at the premises and by when. They are the fastest things for an inspector to establish and the hardest to remedy on the spot.
At the business premises or the work site, the employer must hold: the approval for carrying on the activity or the work registration issued by the competent authority; a copy of the employee's employment contract or other engagement contract; and the compulsory social insurance registration (tačka 2). Not at head office, not with the accountant — at the place where the work is done.
Social insurance registration runs from day one. Under tačka 7 the employer must register the employee for compulsory health, pension and disability, and unemployment insurance with the day they start work, and submit the registration to the competent authority within eight days of that day.
Other dated obligations in the same tier:
- where a recruitment advertisement was run, informing the participants of the selection within 45 days of the application deadline expiring (tačka 4);
- where an irregularity of the kind identified in the Act is established, or a fixed-term contract expires in those circumstances, concluding an indefinite-term contract within five days (tačka 8);
- where work is organised on state or religious holidays, adopting a written decision and notifying the employees, the trade union at the employer and the labour inspectorate three days before the work begins (tačka 13);
- paying salary once a month (tačka 14), and delivering the salary calculation to the employee — including where the employer was unable to pay in full (tačka 15).
Where employees are supplied through an agency, the Act adds its own items: concluding the agreement on the assignment of employees (tačka 10), concluding the employment contract for work through the agency (tačka 11), and paying the agreed salary for work performed at the user even where the user has not settled with the agency (tačka 12).
Workplace cameras and employee monitoring
This is the exposure foreign employers least expect, because it is policed by a third authority — the personal data protection agency — under the Zakon o zaštiti podataka o ličnosti (Sl. list CG 79/08, 70/09, 44/12, 22/17 and 77/24).
Član 36 sets out when an employer may use video surveillance in official or business premises, and the conditions are cumulative rather than alternative.
Stav 1 permits it only where it is required by reasons of protecting the safety of persons or property, or of secret data and business secrets, and only where that cannot be achieved in another way. A general wish to supervise staff is not a listed ground.
Stav 2 places locations off limits entirely. Surveillance is not permitted in official and business premises outside the workplace, in particular in changing rooms, lifts and sanitary facilities, and in areas intended for clients and visitors.
Stav 3 provides that where surveillance is not prescribed by law, the decision is taken by the responsible person in the company or by the entrepreneur — so it is a documented decision, not an operational choice.
Stav 4 requires that, before adopting that decision, the opinion of the representative trade union or the employees' representative is obtained.
Stav 5 requires employees to be notified in writing before the surveillance begins.
The sequence therefore runs: establish a permitted ground and that no lesser means exists → obtain the union or employee-representative opinion → adopt a written decision → notify employees in writing → only then switch the system on. Installing first and papering afterwards inverts the order the article requires.
What it costs to get wrong
Član 74 imposes a fine of €500 to €20,000 on a legal person for a long list of breaches, including several that are specifically about employees:
- failing to notify employees in writing about the video surveillance and failing to adopt the decision (tačka 11);
- carrying out video surveillance in official and business premises outside the workplace (tačka 12);
- failing to notify employees in writing before the surveillance begins (tačka 13);
- failing to display a visible public notice that surveillance is being carried out, or displaying one that does not contain the prescribed information (tačke 15 and 16);
- failing to protect the surveillance system against access by unauthorised persons (tačka 17);
- entrusting processing to a processor not registered for that activity or not meeting the technical, staffing and organisational conditions (tačka 5);
- failing to ensure technical, staffing and organisational protection measures against loss, destruction, unauthorised access, alteration, publication or misuse (tačka 8);
- failing to respond to a data subject's request within 15 days, to carry out rectification or erasure within 15 days, or to notify of it within eight days (tačke 18, 19 and 20);
- failing to act on an order or prohibition of the Agency (tačka 21).
The responsible person in the legal person, and a natural person, face €150 to €2,000; an entrepreneur faces €150 to €6,000.
The three schedules side by side
| Statute | Company | Responsible person | Entrepreneur | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zakon o strancima, član 210 — employing a foreign national without the required permission | €1,000 – €10,000 | €300 – €2,000 | €300 – €6,000 | Activity ban up to six months (stav 4) |
| Zakon o radu, član 208 — heavier tier | €2,000 – €20,000 | €200 – €2,000 | €500 – €6,000 | — |
| Zakon o radu, član 209 — lighter tier | €1,000 – €10,000 | €100 – €1,000 | €500 – €5,000 | — |
| Zakon o zaštiti podataka o ličnosti, član 74 | €500 – €20,000 | €150 – €2,000 | €150 – €6,000 | — |
Read the second column across the row. In every one of these statutes the responsible person is fined personally and separately from the company — the exposure is not absorbed by the entity. Who counts as a responsible person for criminal purposes, and why the answer follows actual function rather than the register, is set out in our note on tax offences and company officers.
Where the criminal layer begins
Everything above is the misdemeanour layer. A separate and heavier layer exists where conduct crosses into the Criminal Code — for example the offences against employment rights, or the economic offences that name the responsible person as perpetrator. The criminal layer has its own thresholds, its own procedure and, for the company, its own liability statute; we set out how that works in our notes on tax offences and company officers and on director duties and personal liability.
The practical consequence of the two layers is that a single inspection can produce a misdemeanour fine and a criminal referral from the same facts, and settling the first does not dispose of the second.
What to do before an inspection, not after
Reconcile every foreign worker's file to the current permission. The whole regime is in the Zakon o strancima; there is no separate foreign employment act to consult.
Check the contract handover and the on-site file. Under član 209 the employee must receive a copy of the contract on the day they start work; under član 208 tačka 2 the activity approval or work registration, a copy of the contract and the social insurance registration must be held at the premises where the work is done, and under tačka 7 the insurance registration must be filed within eight days of the start date.
Audit the cameras against član 36. Ground, no-lesser-means, union or representative opinion, written decision, written notice to employees, visible public notice — and nothing pointing at a changing room, a lift, a sanitary facility or a client area.
Identify who the "responsible person" is for each of the three statutes, because that individual is fined personally in all of them.
Do not rely on a foreign agency supply route. Član 221b defers those provisions until EU accession.
If you employ people in Montenegro and want the position reviewed before an inspector does it, our work permit and recruitment practice covers the foreign worker side, our data protection practice the surveillance and employee-data side, and our criminal law practice any matter that has already crossed into the criminal layer.
Foreign national employment penalties are from the Zakon o strancima, Sl. list CG 12/2018, 3/2019, 86/2022, 77/2024 and 3/2026; the earlier Zakon o zapošljavanju stranaca (Sl. list CG 22/08 and 32/11) was repealed. Labour penalties are from the Zakon o radu, consolidated text covering Sl. list CG 074/19, 008/21, 059/21, 068/21, 145/21, 077/24, 084/24 and 086/24 of 10 September 2024; that consolidation has itself been overtaken by later amendments whose content we have not verified, so the current text should be confirmed. Data protection penalties are from the Zakon o zaštiti podataka o ličnosti, consolidated text covering Sl. list CG 079/08, 070/09, 044/12, 022/17 and 077/24 of 5 August 2024. All read on 28 August 2026. This note covers the misdemeanour layer and is general information, not advice on an actual or threatened inspection or proceeding.
