Skopje, 22 August 2024 (MIA) - The Government will soon sit down and talk to all legitimate unions and understands the need to raise wages, but there is a lot of politics and little basis for the requests about the rights of workers, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told journalists Thursday.

Mickoski said the Government, after being in power for less than two months, has been “under a synchronized attack” by the President of the Federation of Trade Unions (SSM) and the largest opposition party, which, he said, indicates a political background.

“I heard the statement by the President of SSM. The Finance Minister informed me that the Budget revision was in line with the law. We shouldn’t have any dilemmas on this issue. I found it odd that the leader of SDSM immediately came out in support of the SSM President, I won’t get into how he was elected, etc., there are institutions for that. In less than two months of work, I can see the Government is under a synchronized attack both by the President of SSM and the leader of the largest opposition party, this leads me to think that there is a political background to this. I urge the members of SSM not to fall for this political campaign,” Mickoski said.

The Prime Minister said he would want the wages to be “as high as EUR 5000,” but, he said, “we need to get to that, considering the situation they left in the Budget and the unexpected alignments with the collective agreements”.

The President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM), Slobodan Trendafilov, told a press conference Wednesday that he is optimistic over the issue of raising the minimum wage to EUR 450 and expects to meet with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to discuss the issue.  

Photo: VMRO-DPMNE