Since 2011, the Union for Construction, Industry and Design has been a market for benefited experience for builders. In the meantime, many ministers made promises, many employers declared that they agreed, but the work did not get off the ground. Workers in the construction sector, even at the age of 60, hang from scaffolding, carry heavy construction materials, make facades...

A construction worker called in our editorial office, who reminded us of this painful question for the workers.

- During the transition, before the concept of gross salary was introduced, I am one of those who suffered because I was not registered. I never thought of that. I had health insurance and I thought my pension was running out. Later I understood that I had failed more than 10 years. At one time when work was hard to come by, I went to work in neighboring countries. Now at 62, I don't have the minimum 15 years of service for a pension. Fortunately, in 2 more years, right when I turn 64 and meet the retirement requirement, I will also have 15 years of service. But am I for a construction worker at 62? All day, I go up and down with heavy buckets and plaster. If there was a benefited service like in the former Yugoslavia, I would probably have retired now - says our interlocutor, who insisted on anonymity.

Ivan Peshevski, president of the Union for construction, industry and design, says that there was a correction for professions with beneficial experience in 2011, when only tunnel borers and miners entered the construction sector.

- But we don't have a single such worker. Here and now for the highways, the machines and workers for those things are from abroad. So, it was just a make-up and since then we have been constantly fighting for our construction workers to get a benefited internship - says Peshevski.

He says that the Union demands that all employees in the construction sector - general workers, technicians and engineers, without the administration, receive benefited seniority.

- The last thing we were told by the previous Minister of Labor, Jovana Trenchevska, before her departure, was that within the framework of a project with Switzerland, the rules for benefited seniority will be revised again and that there will be something much better than our proposal, but until today there is no realization neither of our proposal nor of what is better. That project was supposed to end by the middle of this year, but in the meantime the ministerial functioning has also changed, so we have the Ministry of Economy and Labor and the Ministry of Social Policy, Youth and Sports, and neither Durmishi nor Limani give an answer and I doubt that something it's done - says Ivanovski.

He reminds that back in 2013, they gave an initiative to expand jobs in construction and in the construction materials industry, for whom insurance experience is considered to be of increased duration, and that even after that, they constantly sent letters over the years.

- We do not find understanding. At that time, even the employers agreed, but the government required special reports, even though we had the reasoning that for all the positions for which our requests are, there is exposure to external influences and a high degree of risk, so that after "default" they are entitled to a minimum of 12/ 14 months of benefited service, i.e. 12 months of work for 14 months of pensionable service. Then it was argued that 12/15 or 12/16 should not be needed, and in the end they got nothing! - says Peshevski.

He told the new government to seriously deal with this issue, because neither workers at the age of 60 can work, nor can companies expect adequate efficiency from them.

For the same job, some have beneficial experience, others do not

Ivan Peshevski, the first trade unionist in the construction industry, explains that there is discrimination between workers because, for the same job, one has benefited seniority and another does not.

- Here, for example, let's take the job of driver of heavy trucks. If he works in a marble plant, that is, in mining, he has a benefited experience, but if he works in construction, he does not - says Peshevski.