- Македонски
- English
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, as a representative trade union and national social partner in the country, was the initiator and the biggest supporter of the legal changes that make Sunday a non-working day for the largest number of employees in the country, and therefore we emphasize that Sunday is finally a day of weekly rest and is a reality as much as certain employers may not like it.
The workers already feel the benefit of this right, the day of weekly rest to be a Sunday, which is regulated in the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Labor Relations Official Gazette No. 288 of December 21, 2021, and the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on trade Official Gazette No. 295 of December 27, 2021, which is fully in accordance with the above and Article 32 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia that every employee has the right to a paid weekly holiday ht, and employers they must not limit it.
Regarding the initiative by the Chamber of Commerce, which is scheduled to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, the SSM emphasizes that according to Article 11 of the Constitution "Forced labor is prohibited", according to Article 32 of the Constitution "Each employee has right to paid daily, weekly and annual leave", and "Employees cannot waive these rights" and the same article establishes that "The exercise of employee rights and their position is regulated by law and collective agreements."
We emphasize that every state needs healthy workers and citizens, and this has especially come to the fore in the last 2 years during the covid pandemic, it has been unequivocally proven that without healthy workers and citizens, the survival of the state cannot be ensured, nor maintain economic and social processes.
Our legal guide in securing this right was the national and international laws and documents: the Constitution and labor legislation of the state, the General Declaration on Human Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Rights, the Convention on Weekly Rest, etc.
All these laws and fundamental documents on human rights of a national and international nature start from the postulate that everyone has the right to work and working conditions that respect human dignity.
In that direction, everyone has the right to limit the maximum number of working hours, daily, weekly, and annual leave, and the right to paid leave. (Article 31 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU).
At the same time, we point out that according to the Convention on weekly rest C 106 it is clearly stated that all workers should have the right to an uninterrupted weekly rest consisting of at least 24 hours for a period of 7 days, that the period of weekly rest should coincide with the day of the week that is considered a day of rest according to the tradition and customs of the country or region, that each country may apply a special regime of weekly rest or, for certain categories of persons or organizations covered by the Convention, to be paid for all appropriate social and economic requirements, etc.
At the same time, the Convention indicates that in determining the conditions under which temporary exemptions for weekly rest are allowed, the representative organizations of workers and employers, where they exist, should be consulted, which is the case in our country because they gave such a legal solution according to all representative representatives of workers and employers through the social dialogue process of the Economic - Social Council.
We further emphasize that even in the Convention it is clearly stated that no provision of this Convention shall affect any law, decision, custom, or agreement that provides more favorable conditions for workers than those provided by this Convention which is the case with the Amendments to the Labor Law relations with which Sunday was declared a day of weekly rest for over 92% of the workers.
With such actions, employers show their true face, that they do not respect workers' rights, that they do not respect workers, and that their personal interest and their enrichment on the back of the worker's labor is the most important thing to them.
We call on the Constitutional Court to immediately reject the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce, which is contrary to the Constitution, and we encourage the respected Judges to postpone the consideration of the initiative and its rejection, which is scheduled for Wednesday, and to schedule the session for this week and the hearing to extend it for several days on Sunday and to call all employers from the Chamber of Commerce of North Macedonia who is very worried about being allowed to work on Sunday to feel how their fellow workers who have been working on Sunday without restriction feel and without being paid for it, but we doubt that the bosses will come after the fact that all or 90% of them will be in worldly resorts for extended weekends on the backs and sweat of the workers who create their capital with their labor, and we the workers and this week and every next week we will be in the courtroom at the invitation of the Court.
We propose to the Constitutional Court to discuss this existential issue for the workers every day of the week until the end of the year and then again ask the employers who are behind the initiative that the right to a weekly rest should not be regulated by law, if they are against it and if they maintain their position featured in the Initiative.
The Law on Labor Relations Sl.v. No. 288 of 21.12.2021 and the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Trade Official Gazette No. 295 of 27.12.2021 is fully in accordance with the Constitution of the RSM and positive law in the State, this is also confirmed and with the Convention on weekly rest S 106 of the ILO and in accordance with the above, we request the Constitutional Court of RSM to reject the initiative because with it it will interfere with the already established right to an uninterrupted weekly rest consisting of at least 24 hours for a period of 7 days for thousands of workers in the state.
Union of Trade Unions of Macedonia
President
Darko Dimovski
