Skopje, 20 March 2023 (MIA) – The Economic and Social Council is holding a session on Monday afternoon to discuss the General Collective Agreement for the public sector and to begin initial discussions over a draft-law for wages in the public sector, which the unions find unacceptable and call for its withdrawal.

 “The General Collective Agreement was proposed by the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) two years ago, this is the draft text which will be discussed today; let’s see if the government sticks to this text. I think that the situation has changed, we will see what the government will say, they know our position,” said SSM representative Trpe Deanovski before the session.

He reiterated that the draft-law for public sector wages is unacceptable for all public sector unions, adding that they stand together on this issue and that they request the drafting of a new law and the inclusion of unions in the working groups drafting the law.

“All public sector unions have signed a Declaration that we will not accept this draft-law and we will request a new one to be drafted with the inclusion of the unions, and that we do not agree with the methodology for determining wages,” said Deanovski.

The wage adjustment, he said, is not sufficient enough to be considered a wage-raise.

 “The wages of administrative workers have not been raised since 2016. This is not a wage increase; this is an adjustment with the increase of the minimum wage. If you take into account that the inflation last year was much higher than this adjustment, then everyone can conclude that this adjustment of Mden 2.170 is not enough to feed a single family of four. Additional calculations should be made to ensure a continuous growth of wages each year, which would not be related to the minimum wage, but to the average wage,” said Deanovski.

Marjan Risteski from the Confederation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (KSOM) stressed they will request the withdrawal of the draft-law on public sector wages and announce their remarks on the collective agreement.

“What we all expected to happen is happening, total chaos, no one knows which wages have been raised and which haven’t. Let’s see what they say and then we will react as a union. The dissatisfaction is enormous. We will request that the law on public sector wages is withdrawn completely. Let’s see what the collective agreement can offer and if there is no response from the government after this session, the highest leadership of the Confederation will meet, and I hope other unions as well, and we have to react,” said Risteski.

The President of the Assembly of the Organization of Employers, Angel Dimitrov, said that the unions and the government will have the main say today, since the issue is about wages in the public sector.

“As employers we are interested in only one thing, the increase in wages in the private sector must be taken into account when increasing wages in the public sector, the private sector is the one creating value and securing funds for the Budget which are used to pay out the wages of the public sector,” said Dimitrov.ad/nn/

Photo: MIA