Skopje, 16 January 2025 (MIA) - Workers from several state institutions continued to voice their demands for a 30 percent wage raise and the signing of collective agreements with a 30-minute “warning” protest staged in front of the State Statistical Office on Thursday.

At the protest, the leader of the Trade Union of Administration, Judiciary and Citizens' Associations (UPOZ), Trpe Deanoski, said 988 workers are yet to receive their December wages despite the expiration of the legal deadline.

“This concerns employees in all state inspectorates. By failing to carry out its obligations timely in line with the legal amendments, the Ministry of Finance left 988 workers without pay, without repaid loans, without paid bills in the longest month of the year. The legal deadline for the payment of wages expired yesterday, and there is still no information when and whether these employees will receive their wages,” Deanoski said.

Following a statement by the Government in which it said the “strike” of state administration workers does not meet the legal conditions for a strike, Deanoski clarified that the state administration workers are staging a protest and not a strike.

“A strike implies not doing any work tasks, and if the workers at the State Statistical Office fail to do even a single work task in their field, including the calculation and publishing of the average monthly wage in the country, the work of many institutions will be put into question and the citizens will suffer the consequences,” Deanoski said.

Photo: MIA