- Македонски
- English
Ivan Peshevski, the president of SGIP for the publication Challenges of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Skopje with a message to policymakers
If this data is not enough for policymakers to immediately take measures to help and support workers, I believe we will have even poorer workers, and the possibility of a social revolution is not excluded.
A very closely related and, of course, inseparable element of all this is the possibility of emigration for those workers who have remained in the country. In particular, the concept of "Open Balkans" will provide an opportunity for better salaries, but also for a new opportunity for our employees to build their careers elsewhere, to build other economies. All of the above illustrates the problem of unattractive salaries in contrast to difficult and risky jobs, which results in an outflow of the labor force that our state cannot compensate for with anything else. The education of staff costs the state a lot, but in such conditions, it is easily dropped and handed over to someone else as a finished product. This is a seriously problematic time to find qualified staff in any industry. The construction sector has not had a workforce for a long time, nor are we currently in the market for migrant workers from the third world.
What I can say with certainty is actually a finding from the previous period when a large percentage of the able-bodied population left the country and got a job in the highly developed Western European countries, as well as further afield. The statistical data on the young people who left, on the emigration of generally qualified personnel, is surprising, and that is for the simple reason that the rest of the countries have a higher standard of living, and higher personal incomes.
In such circumstances, I believe that instead of determining the value of the minimum monthly salary, it is necessary to determine the minimum value per working hour. Of course, legal solutions can undergo changes for the better, but a much bigger problem is that, even as they are, they are largely not respected. This is where the high rate of the gray economy comes from, which creates unfair competition for employers and workers who do their work honestly. I see most of the blame for this with the State Labor Inspectorate, which has long lacked the capacity, or perhaps the will and professionalism, to cover the labor market.
The Union of Trade Unions of Macedonia, as a relevant social partner, supports the efforts undertaken by state institutions to alleviate unemployment in the country. Every year we support the Operational Plan for active employment programs and measures, with a commitment to creating as many different measures as possible that will help provide more opportunities and ways to include as many unemployed people as possible. We are aware that the majority of active measures aim to improve the employability of the unemployed (training, retraining, internships, business training, etc.), to enable the unemployed to acquire useful skills (basic and specific) needed to perform work tasks. Only in this way will the unemployed become a trained workforce. They will become attractive and acceptable to employers. They will be able to find an acceptable job faster and change their status of unemployed. Therefore, every year the Union of Trade Unions of Macedonia advocates and requests that as many financial resources as possible be allocated for active policies, so that the coverage of the people with the foreseen measures can be increased, but also given the opportunity to create new measures, intended for the integration of a vulnerable group of unemployed persons.
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