CCM CALLS ON A UNION MARCH ON THE FIRST OF MAY

The Council of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia unanimously adopted a Decision by which continues the tradition of organizing Union march on the First of May and invites all workers and citizens to mark the International Labor Day. The Union march shall start at 11.00 in front of the headquarters of CCM, shall pass by the Parliament and will end in front of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia where the union demands for promotion of workers' rights shall be submitted.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, as the only representative trade union, submitted a proposal for a new Labor Law to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in February 2019, in which we demand promotion of labor rights. CCM is also part of the negotiations for a new General Collective Agreement for the private sector in the area of economy, and the negotiations on the General Collective Agreement for the public sector shall also begin in due time.

In a period in which we discuss about labor rights and dignity of workers that shall be determined in the Labor Law and the General Collective Agreements, it is extremely important that all workers contribute and play their part in this process, and through the Union march we shall send a message to the Government and the competent Ministries that they must not decide on our rights without us and without accepting our requests that are solely for the purpose of improving and bringing them closer to the ones on the European level.

CCM also once again emphasizes some of the requests submitted to the Government and the competent Ministries, as follows:

• As a rule, the employment contracts to be signed on a permanent base, and the fixed term contracts to be concluded in exceptional cases, up to 1 year;
• Increase of severance pay to 12 salaries for dismissals due to business reasons;
• Deleting the control period for overtime work, work at night and work on a day of weekly rest;
• Saturday and Sunday to be rest days;
• 12 months maternity leave for one child, and 18 months of maternity leave for 2 or more;
• Increase of the minimum wage to 13.800 MKD, which necessarily follows a proportional increase in wages in the country and reduction in poverty;
• A stable pension system without increase of the retirement age and introduction of the years of service as a precondition for exercising the right to pension;
• Health and safe working conditions, etc.

CCM calls on all workers and citizens in the country to come and join us on First of May, and together to spread the voice and ask for realization of our demands.

The more we are, the more louder and stronger we shall be!