- Македонски
- English
In an interview with "Localno", the president of the trade union for civil engineering, industry, and design, Ivan Peshevski says that the 60-hour working week, first of all, I will emphasize that it represents DEATH for the workers, bearing in mind that it is a question of high-risk jobs and exposure to external influences in during the entire working life. This move by government representatives and MPs is shameful for us because it not only regresses workers' rights but will lead to a new huge number of injuries and casualties on construction sites. On the other hand, exactly one year ago, the Union of civil engineering, Industry, and Design, together with the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, challenged that "Agreement in four eyes" before the Constitutional Court, where it was not allowed to work 60 hours during the Constitutional Court's decision. for a week, but today they are trying to implement the same through the Parliament, for which we will also use all legal mechanisms to stop or challenge this legal solution. All laws and by-laws related to the economic and social position of citizens, as well as the Law on Labor Relations, which is a Constitution for workers in a country, is adopted after the prior consent of the Economic and Social Council, where all three partners, the Trade Unions, the Government, and the Employers, have agreed to provisions, but this time it is not the case due to a series of omissions in the Agreement with Bechtel and Enka, so now an exit is sought through the Parliament. For us, a law called "special interest" to pass in the assembly after a shortened procedure is a disastrous solution not only for the Government but for the entire country and the entire citizenry, bearing in mind that Bechtel and Enka will not pay customs and taxes, the state will also pay compensation for illegal the built buildings, the forests will be cut down without any consent, the workers will also work on Sundays, so luckily only the cultural heritage has been saved so far, but we don't know if it will be saved until the end.
- We sincerely hope that we will not work an average of 60 hours a week, because this will involve other sectors working after such hours, because it is a matter of the Law on Labor Relations, which is a general law for everyone, and not a special Law. Productivity against our wages in the sector cannot be expected anymore and it is meaningless if we expect more productivity from imported workers if they come. Furthermore, we hope that more than half of the funds, in accordance with the clauses of the Internationally Ratified Conventions, especially Convention 94 of the ILO, will end up in domestic companies, where for the time being, the domestic laws that have already been passed are valid and should be valid for everyone, for which only we, as representative trade unions, are they worked and wore. However, there is a great danger of violent passing of Laws after a shortened procedure as we saw in the Parliament for the adoption of the need for these changes in all 9 laws which by themselves will close not only the construction sector but the overall established legal order of the state. We wonder why we even have a Law on Public Procurement and a Ministry of Transport and Communications when this Agreement bypassed everything and was passed in this way. This is definitely of particular and public interest, but not at this price, where the first theft that the Macedonian worker and citizen does not remember has already been committed, to conclude a contract worth 1.3 billion euros without a project and without calculated expropriation costs. Furthermore, certain articles for penalties from the state according to Bechtel and Enka if the performance is delayed, and already after the official opening of the project we did not see that anyone started work.
- If we are talking about amendments and additions to the Law on Labor Relations, of course, that represents a direct danger for all employees in the state, because I will repeat again this is Lex Generalis and it applies to everyone, not only Bechtel and Enka. I believe that in this dark time, other employers will also try to take advantage of the opportunity to increase the duration of working hours in a working week, especially the textile industry, catering and tourism, and many others that have so far circumvented the payment of overtime so that the same is now legal for them. and under no circumstances should the employee receive compensation for overtime work.
- I will not say that public interest is a job that takes away rights, is not paid properly and the law does not apply equally to everyone. As a reminder, thanks to the Union of Trade Unions of Macedonia, Sunday is a non-working day and this has shown and proven that it is a better legal solution for all those who are not working now and have a safe day of rest with their families during the working week. These quick and disastrous legal solutions are always brought by ministers and MPs who have never worked a week in their life, nor by employers who have paid an increased daily wage for working on Sundays.
Bad government policies over the years have contributed to the fact that we are left without a qualified and highly qualified Macedonian worker, who is now productive and adequately paid in highly developed European countries. Finally, I will remind you that for exactly one year since last March, only in the construction sector we have had 12,622 less workers according to the data of the State Statistics Office. This year, if we follow the government's plan to have 96% of the total money of the citizens go to foreign companies compared to 4% to domestic companies, we will still have quite a few of the workers we have. The importation of workers from "third world countries" is totally unacceptable for us and as previously stated, we will fight to the last worker so that it does not become a reality in the country that we are losing before our eyes due to some government individuals.
You can read the entire interview for Lokalno. mk with the President of the Construction Union - SGIP, Ivan Peshevski at the link:
