CIVIL – Center for Freedom carried out quite a bit of research in the area of social justice in 2015 and 2016.  CIVIL’s monitoring teams and researchers came across disturbing testimonies in regards to the situation of the workers’ rights in Republic of Macedonia. Workers in Macedonia are paid below all labor standards, and in the meanwhile are subject to mobbing and harassment at the workplace, and often to political abuse and discrimination as well.

In its research, CIVIL also included the textile workers. The textile industry is the pillar of the economy in Stip. There are more than 80 textile factories in Stip, many of which are foreign investments.

According to the information that CIVIL came across, textile workers earn between seven and nine thousand denars per month. This amount includes money that is needed for transportation and food. They work in shifts, often overtime and during holidays, but do not get paid extra for this. According to several testimonies, if they are absent from work due to sickness, workers are forced to return the money in cash. Safety at work is a non-existing category. Insults are part of their everyday lives. Many of them have no health insurance.

Reality has not changed for years. The treatment of workers in the textile industry is only getting worse. Many of them support their families and this is their only source for their existence.

Our interlocutors wished to remain anonymous, fearing they might lose their only opportunity for, as they say, bare existence.

Biljana Jordanovska