Skopje, 5 February 2026 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski assessed Thursday’s meeting with representatives of the Trade Union of Workers in Administration, Judicial Authorities and Citizens' Associations (UPOZ) as constructive, stressing that the Government presented the conditions and rules for the 40 percent wage increase for administrative workers and is now awaiting a response from the union on whether they accept the Government’s proposal.

“We set the conditions and the rules under which we are prepared to advance this process. They, like the representatives of the other union from KSS, said they would consult with the leadership within their union branch and inform us today or tomorrow. If everything is in order, then on Sunday we should finally agree, and from Monday we will be able to start drafting a template of what that individual union agreement would look like. Then, of course, it would have to be adopted in various working groups and on the basis of that the payment of the March wages would begin in April with an 8 percent increase on top of the adjustment. The same would happen in 2027 and 2028, which means that in around two years the administrative workers, those who haven’t received wage increases, will receive wages higher by at least 40 percent than current wages,” Mickoski said.

Regarding the initiative submitted by the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) to Parliament in order to lower the wages of officials, the Prime Minister said it is unconstitutional, populist, and harms the interests of the workers.

“This type of intervention in the past was deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. Back then, if you recall, the wages of appointed and elected officials were raised by 78 percent. So, what is the strategy of this Government? A constitutional, lawful way would be to reduce the coefficients for appointed and elected officials so that wages do not increase in line with the law, and by the end of this Government’s tern in 2028, we would roughly return to the same level we had as appointed and elected officials before the Constitutional Court’s decision under the previous Government to raise wages by 78 percent. That is the only constitutional way. What is now being proposed is unconstitutional, and the past years have already proven it to be unconstitutional. It is populist, full of political manipulation, and the last thing it does is protect the interests of workers. That is the essence of this proposal,” the Prime Minister said. 

Photo: Government