Skopje, 3 February 2026 (MIA) - The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) said Tuesday it would escalate its campaign for higher wages. The union is planning to stage blockades of the building of Parliament on February 10, followed by blockades of the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia, and the Government on February 17.

“Yesterday marked the expiration of the deadline that thousands of workers had set for Members of Parliament to swiftly amend the Law on Minimum Wage, raising the minimum wage to EUR 600, and all other wages by the difference – at least Mden 6.000 (EUR 97). The dismissive attitude shown by the MPs toward the workers has pushed us into the second phase of our activities to secure higher wages,” said the head of SSM, Slobodan Trendafilov.

The union leader said SSM would submit an initiative to Parliament on Wednesday  to amend the law regulating the wages of elected and appointed officials.

“With this initiative, we are amending the article which defines the basis for calculating wages. Instead of the current average wage serving as the basis for calculation by coefficient of complexity, the basis will be the minimum wage. In this way, we are giving them the opportunity to show that they will not allow further rise in inflation and that they are prepared to reduce their own wages by 40 percent simply through this legal amendment, and also cut the complexity coefficients by 40 percent,” Trendafilov said, adding that if Parliament does not do that, the union would launch an initiative to collect 10.000 signatures in order to gain the right to formally propose such legal amendments.

Trendafilov said a 24-hour general strike remains an option, as well as the holding of another protest march like the one last Wednesday.

Regarding the Government’s demand to scrap the section of the General Collective Agreement regulating workers’ wages, Trendafilov said SSM would not allow workers to give up a right once acquired and guaranteed by the Constitution and the law.

Photo: MIA