Trendafilov: Government is not against increasing the minimum wage, but the other two unions

The increase in the minimum wage and the application of collective agreements were the focus of today’s meeting of unions and the government. President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (CCM) Slobodan Trendafilov said the government was not against raising the minimum wage, but the other two unions attending the meeting, stressing that they demanded that the provisions of the General Collective Agreement be abolished in the process of wage growth in the public. In contrast, the President of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions (KSS) Blagoja Ralpovski assessed that what CCM is looking for is populism, noting that by raising the minimum wage to 30,000 denars will cover only part of the state employees.

According to Trendafilov, only CCM at today’s meeting highlighted the demands of the workers.

– Workers in Macedonia do not have as much problem with the Government as they have with other unions. Only the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia highlighted the demands of workers, including the growth of the minimum wage, the growth of all other salaries, as well as the respect of the General Collective Agreement on the public sector and the need to increase public sector wages by 12.6 percent – Trendafilov said.

He pointed out that in the coming period CCM will continue to discuss wage growth, stressing that the government was not against an increase in the minimum wage.

« The government at this point is not against the rise in the minimum wage, and of course we have also discussed wages in the rest of the sector, especially for the ministries for which the CCM and the UPOZ trade union have been negotiating with the government for several weeks, ie what workers are required by a 30 percent salary supplement, » Trendafilov said.

He emphasized that the next period all public sector employees should increase their salaries, but, as he said, the other two unions demand the abolition of the provisions of the general collective agreement in the process of public sector wage growth.

– We want to send a message that the next period all public sector employees, 128,000 in the number should receive an increase in their salaries, but what is bad is that the other two unions participating in the meeting demand that the provisions of the General Collective Agreement be abolished in the public sector wage growth process or that the General Collective Act will be said. CCM as a signatory considers that the General Collective Agreement should be applied in the coming period, and with the Government as a signatory on the other side we are available to sit down to discuss all disputed issues – Trendafilov said.

According to Ralpovski, only part of the state employees will be covered by the minimum wage of 30,000 denars.

– Our question to other unions was that by raising the minimum wage to 30,000 denars will cover 70,000 or 80,000 employees of 700,000 employees in the country. We asked the president if they are ready to respect the law of minimum wage we have collective agreements at the branch level and whether they are ready to subsidize it and whether they can withstand it, because in the past and now we only demand respect for laws and collective agreements. What CCM requires is populism – emphasized Ralpovski.

In the minimum wage area, he pointed out that the meeting pointed out that the government was not ready to subsidize wages, because, as he said, it had a legal obligation all salaries in the public sector then rise.

« The government said, headed by the prime minister, that they are not ready to subsidize their salaries, because they have a legal obligation all public sector salaries to rise, that they have not had such a well -raised budget rise, it will be a huge burden and that they will have problems with international factors that are creditors to this country. But the question remains open if the economic situation in the coming period is better to sit down and talk to them – said Ralpovski.

KSS in 2023, he added, disagreed with the provisions of the General Collective Agreement on the part of pay raising.

– As KSS we did not agree with such provisions in the General Collective Agreement on the part of salaries in 2023. In 2024 it prescribed 0.7 increase in public sector wages. Through the branch unions we have fought for greater increases in the public sector to come much higher than the minimum wage. That general collective agreement expires in June – said Ralpovski.