Government, unions and employers have not reached an agreement over the union’s demand for an increase of the minimum wage to Mden 18,000 (EUR 292). Economic-Social Council members agreed that the minimum wage needs to increase but not on the amount or the way to do this.
“We had a really constructive dialogue as never before. There is consensus that the minimum wage will increase. The dialogue will resume on Friday at 4 p.m. I assure all citizens belonging to the group of minimum wage beneficiaries that consensus on the matter will be reached soon. Nevertheless, we said that the only way leading to a decent pay for our workers is by creating a long-term system, one that goes beyond a certain government structure,” said Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi after the session.
According to him, talks should focus on creating a system that would ensure a decent minimum wage in the coming years, so that the issue is taken off the table. On the absence of a solution, Bytyqi said this is a tripartite dialogue and things have to start from somewhere. Federation of Trade Unions (SSM) president Darko Dimovski said the proposal given by the employers by the end of the session was an attempt to buy time. “We negotiated for three hours and when pressed by the unions’ arguments, the employers produced a last-minute proposal.
The arguments favor our demands and we convinced the Government that the minimum wage should amount to 60 percent of the average wage, but the Organization of Employers of Macedonia (ORM) only wants to buy time until Friday,” said Dimovski. He added that strike would be their next option if a solution was not reached. ORM president Vladanka Trajkovska said their proposal focused on a change of the criteria to determine the amount of the minimum wage. “We expect a proposal from the Government and see if our ideas will be considered. Unions had their own ideas too. We expect a compromise among all three stakeholders, but the solution should be appropriate to the current situation in the economy,” said Trajkovska.
Unions demand an urgent increase of the minimum wage from the current Mden 15,200 (EUR 246) to Mden 18,000 (EUR 292) due to rising living costs, economic and energy crisis, accompanied by a rise of all other salaries.
Source:MIA
