Skopje, 21 December 2023 (MIA) — The air traffic controllers' strike announced for Dec. 25 and Dec. 31 has been cancelled, Independent Union of Air Traffic Controllers leader Aleksandar Tasevski told a press conference Thursday.

He said that union members at their meeting earlier in the day had decided to accept the announced job vacancies. Previously, they had opposed the filling of "non-essential positions" via the job competition, which had been the reason for their decision to resume their October strike action.

"We have decided to cancel the strike for several operational reasons," Tasevski told reporters.

Reiterating that the union still disapproved of employing "the two non-essential candidates," he noted that the union's insistence on allowing 10 working days for the job competition would delay the hiring of qualified candidates to fill essential roles.

"We had the option to either completely refuse to hire anyone or accept, that is, to 'swallow' the wrongdoing by the directors who probably counted on this happening so we would not have any room to maneuver," Tasevski said. mr/