For years, the employees of the "Napredok" printing house from Tetovo have been getting their salaries delayed, and with that, their health insurance and the opportunity to go to the doctor on time and take the necessary therapy.

The authorities have no idea about this long-standing problem, say the trade union organization of fifty employees of the "Napredok" printing house.

During the Corona crisis, when the need for a doctor was necessary, salaries were delayed, and thus the health insurance, the union organization of Pechatnica pointed out.

"One of our colleagues died last year. He, like all of us, did not have the opportunity to go to the doctor and receive the appropriate therapy, because he did not have health insurance. Unfortunately, after the long-term Golgotha, we have come to this situation of asking for help from the media to inform the public, as well as the institutions, about the problems we have been facing for years. From 2019 until now, literally due to salary delays, employees remain without health insurance, although the majority of employees are over 50 years old with various therapies and diagnoses, we spent the whole corona without health insurance and with private payments for examinations. In order not to get into such a situation, we are all at that age, we all have diagnoses, so we must react and find an appropriate solution to our problem", says Zive Kyroski, president of the trade union organization of "Napredok" at SSM.

When everyone is asking for a salary increase, we in our company, where almost everyone receives the minimum wage, are still talking about paying us that miserable salary regularly, say the trade union organization.

"Until now, we do not have any concrete answer to our problem. Only once, after reporting to the labor inspectorate, back wages were paid to "Napredok 1", which is a protective organization, i.e. another legal entity, but this is only on paper, in practice "Napredok 1" and "Napredok Print" is part of the "Napredok" printing house because our tasks and work processes are related. After we formed the trade union organization, we had sent a dozen letters, so that we would not go out in public or report to inspections, we wanted the problems to be solved within the company, but unfortunately we encountered a complete ignorant attitude from the company. Maximum engagement is required of us. It is known that this printing house is one of the main printing houses for the production of textbooks and we are under pressure to print the textbooks within the appropriate period and our employees are maximally engaged, and our salaries are delayed, says Zive Qiroski, president of the trade union organization of "Napredok".

The management of the printing house "Napredok" says that the legal entity "Napredok Print" is currently two salaries late, but at the end of this month or the beginning of the next, they will be paid the July salary, and thus the employees will have health insurance. They say that with the Corona crisis, their work was drastically reduced, which is the reason why the problem of delayed salaries appeared.

They hope that in the future such situations will be overcome, employees will receive a regular salary with paid health insurance.