Skopje, 23 April 2024 (MIA) - The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) will hold its traditional May 1 protest, this year calling for a restoration of meal and transport allowances of 20 percent of the average wage and an increase of the minimum wage to EUR 450 in the first 100 days of the new government, SSM President Slobodan Trendafilov said at a press conference Tuesday.

“We will demand the restoration of meal and transport allowances, a right we lost in 2009 due to the system of calculating gross wages in Macedonia. We will demand an increase of the wages in the first 100 days of the new government, especially an increase of the minimum wage to at least EUR 450, as it is in the region so that we don’t find ourselves in our situation where our citizens, the laborers from Macedonia, are building foreign economies and working for foreign interests. We are all facing the pressure of low wages, over our survival and the problems that are being created in the union movement with the confiscation of SSM’s headquarters,” Trendafilov said.

According to the SSM head, the labor movement is facing a serious challenge due to the approach of policymakers over the past period, “who have shown they care for themselves, and not for the workers,” he said.

“Today workers in Macedonia are under pressure regarding their survival due to the increased cost of living, as well as low wages. We will stage a protest because over the past period they remained deaf to our demands,” Trendafilov stressed.

The union leader added that such a situation is impermissible and urged all workers, unions and workers’ rights organizations to join the May Day protest.