Skopje, 9 February 2024 (MIA) - The Trade Union of the Ministry of Finance, within the Union of workers in the administration, judiciary and citizens associations (UPOZ), at a press conference on Friday announced protests and strikes if the general collective agreement is not signed.

"We demand return of the additional 30 percent pay for employees that was cancelled by the Constitutional Court. We demand the Minister to sign the agreement until the elections are called, and if he doesn't, we will continue to protest and strike after the election, rendering the Finance Ministry inoperative. Bechtel and Enka expropriations will also be nonfunctional and the entire public and state administration will not receive wages," said union leader Daniel Mihajlovski.

He stressed that they demand equality in the valuation of labor, and that the signing of the general collective agreement will permanently resolve the wage issue.

Secretary General of UPOZ Trade Union, Bojan Tripunoski, demanded a solution to the issues employees at the Finance Ministry, Property and Legal Affairs Office and Public Procurement Bureau face.

"Today we decided to publicly deliver the general collective agreement to the Minister, and the deadline for signing is Monday, 12.02.2024," Tripunoski said.

Signing the agreement, he noted, is the only fair and just solution allowing all employees to receive supplemental pay. That, he added, is a simple solution because the Finance Ministry already has the funds.

"We urge the Minister not to create disorder and dissatisfaction among employees, because we have information that certain individuals within the Ministry intend on discriminating by giving only a few employees a 30 percent supplemental pay, others 15 percent, while a large part will receive nothing, even though the Ministry has enough funds. We demand the Minister protects employees as he did with Article 66 of the Law on budgets, which was abolished by the Constitutional Court, and to prevent quality personnel leaving the Finance Ministry," Tripunoski stressed.

Since the Constitutional Court abolished the provision of Article 66 of the Law on budgets, Tripunoski added, currently nothing obstructs the signing of the general collective agreement. ssh/nn/

Photo: MIA