Skopje, 4 January 2024 (MIA) — Twenty to thirty air traffic controllers and their assistants working for the national air navigation service provider M-NAV are expected to start resigning from their management positions in response to the latest job announcement in this institution and in support of union activities, Trade Union of Air Traffic Controllers leader Aleksandar Tasevski told a press conference Thursday.

According to Tasevski, a strike is also possible, though not over the next few days.

"Seeing how things are going, this time it would not be a strike of air traffic controllers but of all M-NAV staff," he said.

He added that employment procedures were violated on many grounds and the job compettion results would be contested. Rejected candidates were also expected to react, he said.

Tasevski also said a criminal report had been filed against him by two of the three M-NAV directors as an attempt to "pressure [the union] to give up our activities to protect professionalism and stop clientelism and unnecessary hiring."

He said he had been notified Wednesday by the Violent Crime Department at the Ministry of Interior that M-NAV directors Fahrudin Hamidi and Fasim Deari had reported an email of his because of "feeling of threat to their life security" under Article 144 Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code.

"I most responsibly claim that the content of this email does not contain anything resembling a threat," the Trade Union of Air Traffic Controllers leader told reporters.

He said it was misinterpreted deliberately so it could be used against him as union leader and the air controllers who "dared to raise their voices and show they are ready to stand up for the defense and protection of their profession, to stop the clientelism and the hiring of unnecessary and unprofessional staff."

According to him, recent resignations by engineers and technicians from their management positions as well as M-NAV projects they were working on did instill fear in the directors. "That fear is not for their lives, as they said in the report against me, but for their executive armchairs, which just shows we are on the right track and motivates us even more," Tasevski said.

He said air traffic controllers and assistant air traffic controllers in managerial and instructor positions would be submitting their resignations as of today.

He said more and more people were in support of the union and "professionalism, above all, in the protection of air traffic safety, which cannot be compromised."

After last week's resignations of engineers from managerial instructor positions as well as one of the three directors of M-NAV over the selection of candidates in the latest job competition, the union leader invited labor inspectors and anticorruption commission members to look into the national air navigation service provider's way of hiring.

He said they should look into "not only this job competition but also many other things," including questionable renovations of a 280 square meter space at the cost of EUR 400,000.

On Dec. 21, the union had cancelled the air traffic controllers' strike announced for Dec. 25 and Dec. 31. Tasevski then said union members had decided to accept the announced job vacancies but would monitor the hiring process and react to any irregularities. mr/