Skopje, 9 April 2025 (MIA) - The national minimum wage and the collective agreements were the topics of discussion at Wednesday’s meeting between the Government and the unions, union representatives told journalists after the meeting. 

The head of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) Slobodan Trendafilov, and the head of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions (KSS), Blagoja Ralpovski, clashed after the meeting with Trendafilov claiming the Government wasn't opposed to raising the minimum wage, but the two other unions at the meeting were, while KSS’s Ralpovski said SSM’s demands about a Mden 30.000 (EUR 487) minimum wage are “populism”. 

“At this moment, the Government is not opposed to raising the minimum wage. Of course, we also spoke about raising wages in the other sectors, especially at the ministries that we’ve been negotiating about for weeks now,” Trendafilov said. 

Trendafilov said in the coming period all public sector employees should receive a pay raise but warned that the other two unions are looking to scrap the provisions in the general collective agreement related to the growth of public sector wages. 

“We want to state that in the coming period all public sector employees, 128.000 of them, should receive a pay raise. However, what's bad is that the other two unions who participated in the meeting are asking that the provisions of the general collective agreement related to the growth of public sector wages be scrapped or to consider the general collective agreement as closed and inapplicable in any provision. As a signatory, SSM believes that the general collective agreement should continue to be implemented in the coming period as well, and we are ready to discuss all contentious issues with the Government as the other signatory,” Trendafilov said. 

KSS’s Ralpovski assessed SSM's demands as “populism”, claiming that a potential increase of the minimum wage to EUR 487 would only apply to some of the workers in the country. 

“What we said to the other unions is that the increase of the minimum wage to Mden 30.000 would only apply to 70.000 or 80.000 out of 700.000 workers in the country,” Ralpovski said. 

Ralpovski said the Government told the unions at the meeting it isn’t ready to subsidize contributions in a potential increase of the minimum wage, since it would then also be legally obliged to increase all public sector wages to adjust with the new minimum wage. 

“The Government, led by the Prime Minister, said they aren’t ready to subsidize wages, since they have a legal obligation to then raise all public sector wages, noting that they haven’t planned such an increase in the budget, which would be a huge burden and would cause issues with the country’s international creditors. But the question remains up for discussion if the economic situation improves in the coming period,” Ralpovski said. 

Photo: MIA