- Македонски
- English
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, as the only representative trade union and national social partner that vigilantly monitors and analyzes the economic situation in the country, believes that due to the health, energy, and military crisis, it is necessary to intensify the social dialogue within the existing institutions in order to have an open conversation and find out the solutions for all open issues in order to mitigate the consequences of these crises, especially for the most vulnerable categories of workers and citizens.
We insist even more and demand the start of a social dialogue because we believe that we may face harmful consequences for workers such as:
1. The loss of the worker's real purchasing power due to the cost of living - inflation
2. Risk of delay in non-payment of the earned salary.
3. Closure of jobs and dismissal
In order to survive in times of crisis:
1. The SSM demands that wages in the state follow the increase in inflation but also the increase in the trade union basket made by the SSM.
2. The SSM requires the consistent application of the provisions of the collective agreements for harmonizing wages according to the increase in inflation, as well as the determination of such a provision in the general collective agreement for the public sector and the general collective agreement for the private sector, which will apply to all workers and employers
3. SSM requests the expansion of previous anti-crisis measures by freezing the margin for the products determined so far, as well as the expansion of more food products.
4. SSM requests to re-introduce the measure of the right to a payment card for the purchase of domestic products and payment of electricity bills for a certain category of workers and citizens who are most at risk and most affected by the economic crisis, that is, we request that value cards be distributed for the purchase of food and payment of the electricity bills of a certain category of families, especially those whose total income is below the average salary (31,812.00 MKD) in a family of four up to the difference from the union minimum basket (48,230.00 MKD). We also request that the categories of high school students and students who study outside their place of residence be covered by subsidizing part of the costs of their accommodation.
5. SSM requests to enable free city transportation to and from work, given that such an expense for working citizens is every day and unavoidable, and undoubtedly burdens the domestic budget.
These measures for workers and citizens from the most vulnerable categories mean existence in this economic and energy crisis.
We expect the Government to accept such measures at the next week's session of the Economic and Social Council, and in this way to benefit the workers with the lowest incomes and the most vulnerable categories of citizens.
