Macedonian managers of foreign companies in the country exert the greatest pressure on their employees to prevent them from being unionized. Trade unions demand that the Labor Inspectorate punish managers for preventing unionization.
Domestic managers in some of the foreign capital companies in the country are putting a lot of pressure on workers not to join the union, and some state labor inspectors are also part of this game, said Slobodan Trendafilov, Chief of the Cabinet of the President in the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia at the recent public discussion "Unionization in the Private Sector" organized in Bitola.
“As an example I will point out a company in the neighboring town of Bitola, where direct pressure from the domestic manager of a foreign company is put on the workers who have joined the union. In Skopje, in a company where there were 400 union members, now, there is only one. It is a serious problem for us the unions," said Trendafilov.
According to him, the Labor Inspectorate should not avoid punishing those who repeat the same mistake several times, i.e. those who prevent unionization. He pointed out that in a company from Prilep there are two trade unions, and the employer is doing everything to sto the work of one. On the other hand, the Labor Inspectorate has been provided with documents, written evidence that the Labor Law has been violated, and the inspector is in a direct contact with the manager and fails to act in accordance with his responsibilities.
"The biggest problem for unionization is fixed-term employment contracts, which, unfortunately, with current legislation can be concluded every month, or 12 times a year, thereby reducing the security of workers and thus the ability to get involved in the union work because the employers cancel those contracts after the deadline. In many foreign companies only the executives have employment contracts and all the other workers have fixed-term employment contracts that in a country aspiring for an EU membership should not happen," said Trendafilov.
Link: https://www.slobodnaevropa.mk/a/%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%b1%d0%be%d1%82%d0%bd%d0%...
