Trpe Deanoski, president of the UPOZ Trade Union / Photo: Free Press / Dragan Mitreski

VIDEO INTERVIEW | Deanoski: The budget is the largest ever, it is not a problem for 3.500 administrators to receive a 30 percent salary increase

The government has admitted that public administration salaries are not high, but it does not recognize their right to protest for a 30 percent increase and for the conclusion of Collective Agreements. They accused the UPOZ Trade Union, which has been organizing warning half-hour protests in state institutions and services since Tuesday that did not receive a salary increase and have come into a disadvantageous and discriminated position compared to colleagues from health, education, finance and several government services that have already received a salary increase, of being malicious, politically motivated and instructed.

-I think the government had to say something in order not to remain silent, and from those accusations, there is no, nor will there ever be a "p" from politics. All our protests and demands are materially - economically. We care about improving the materially - economically situation of our members, first of all, and only then for all employees in the administration and judiciary, which is what the UPOZ union exists for. Apart from such declarative statements from the government that we are politically instructed and malicious, which unfortunately, is a very bad word for a government to use towards a union, and that they want dialogue, we have not received a single invitation to continue the dialogue because we had the dialogue and ended it with the relevant ministers from these institutions where employees are protesting these days - says Trpe Deanoski, president of the UPOZ union, in a guest appearance on the show "Sloboden Pechat".

The union members of UPOZ continue their protest today in front of the Ministry of Finance, which is key to this discrimination among employees in terms of salaries in the public sector. Salaries have increased in the Ministry of Finance, and the government is also using the argument that in the six-month period of the work of the Mickoski government, salaries in healthcare, education have been increased, K-15 has been paid and pensions have been increased. The union members expect the dialogue to continue, and the protests were announced only for this week.

-Today in the morning hours, we submitted a request to continue the dialogue directly to Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and we expect to have a working meeting with him and the Minister of Finance in the coming period to find a mutually acceptable solution to this request of ours. The requests are fair and just for us, I think that several variants can be found to find a solution that would be acceptable to both us and the government. There was a former minister who said that there is always money in the state budget, it is just that it is incorrectly distributed. So we can do that with those funds approved by the Ministry of Finance. Currently, the institutions, with the permission of the Ministry of Finance and by redistributing funds from one item to another, will find certain solutions so that workers can receive a larger salary supplement. I was not caught for a single word said in front of the Ministry of "exodus", I think that the exodus has already begun, we need to stop it - says Deanoski.

We are talking about 3.500 employees whose salaries, according to the union, should receive a 30 percent salary supplement, or 6.000 denars, because they are making do with a salary of 25.000 denars, or their average is 29.000 denars, and even with the supplement, they would again have a lower salary than the average in Macedonia, which is now 42.000 denars.

-The government came out and said that the budget has about 13,8 percent more funds planned for salaries than last year, but we are not asking for that. Public sector employees should receive that in March with what is written in the General Collective Agreement. This is a special request, not for a salary, but for a salary supplement. The budget is large enough, we have the largest state budget since independence, and it is for only 3500 employees. We are not asking for all public sector employees. The government has already shown good will and new collective agreements have been signed for employees in healthcare and education, and salaries have increased there. Over 30.000 employees are employed in these two sectors, so there should be no problem for 3500 employees, Deanoski is decisive.

The government, in turn, calling on trade unionists to engage in dialogue, emphasizes that they had the opportunity to raise this issue at two previous Economic and Social Councils, as an appropriate place for government ministers, trade unionists, and employers to meet, but they did not do so.

-The work of the Economic and Social Council is not to resolve individual requests of workers. Those requests or needs that all workers in the country have, from the private and public sectors, are resolved there. This request of ours can only be resolved by the relevant ministers and the Ministry of Finance. The relevant ministers support us and they are aware that if nothing is done, we will have bigger problems for workers in the administration. And that is precisely why we prepared collective agreements together with them that they sent to the Ministry of Finance. I understand this ministry because it may have other priorities now, but if these 11-12 institutions send the same proposal for a collective agreement, with the same request, we could sit down before the budget is passed and agree, if not in full, then individually on several occasions, so that our colleagues receive at least something of what other colleagues from the administration have already received - says Deanoski.

The President of the UPOZ does not reveal where, but confirms that there have been threats of fines and other pressures on employees in state bodies and institutions who are protesting these days, but adds that there is great support for the Union to persist until the demands are met.

– The turnout is quite high. We had a reaction that a very small number of employees walked out, it is not so, over 90% of employees in the institutions walk out, however, citizens and you should know that employees in the Ministry are the smallest group of employees in the public sector. Both in the State Statistical Office and in the State Archives, those who go out to protests. For example, the Ministry of Culture has only 100 employees, of those 100, 85 colleagues go out to protests every day, for half an hour, and the other 15 must stay inside so that they can complete and service their work tasks, those towards citizens and the private sector. We only take Culture as an example. The request, as I said, concerns a very small group of employees and can be very easily resolved. We did not have any pressure from these line ministers and directors, because we have a good social dialogue with them and they know our request, and we also have support. We had several pressures in other ministries, however, so going forward, I think that if necessary, I will say where and how and what, I think it is not the time - says Deanoski.

The government, in addition to patience, expects greater productivity and efficiency in the work and in terms of the services they provide to citizens from public administration employees, and fails to regularly pay salaries in some sectors. 988 employees in the Inspectorates have not yet received their December salaries, and this phenomenon is not common, but according to Deanoski it happens when there are changes in the management of the bodies.

The trade unionists, together with the Minister of Public Administration Goran Minchev, also reviewed the new draft laws relating to administration. The Law on Public Sector Employees and the Law on Administrative Servants, which, among other things, should introduce a new system for calculating salaries.

-The salary system for us is regulated by the General Collective Agreement. If officials can receive a salary, an average, according to a coefficient from the budget, public sector employees can also receive a salary, an average, according to a coefficient from the budget. Our request was that the first employee with higher education should receive an average salary, and that our salaries should be below the coefficients of officials. We have seen now that officials, according to the law on the payment of salaries for public and appointed officials, are freezing them again, that is, making a political decision, not to make too much noise, they will not receive a salary increase, that is, an adjustment, and that is not small, it will be about 300-400 euros in March. We also have dissatisfaction among the officials themselves, but they are doing this to keep employees in the public sector and the private sector calmer and not to demand it. However, our job, as a union, is to always demand a plus, and that is precisely why we are demanding this 30% or salary increase, we have always demanded it in the Administration or in the judiciary, because you know yourself, we all shop in markets and markets, that we cannot survive with our salaries, even from month to month - Trpe Deanoski is decisive in the interview for "Sloboden Pechat".

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