- Македонски
- English
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia as a representative union at the national level in both the private and public sectors in the Republic of North Macedonia represents all workers and takes care of the realization and protection of their employment rights. In that direction, the SSM filed a Public Interest Lawsuit against the Republic of North Macedonia, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia as a defendant in the proceedings due to the fact that a large number of employees in the public sector were discriminated against by the actions of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Namely, the Government did not act in full accordance with the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Minimum Wage published in Official Gazette no. 41 of 2022, which determined the amount of the minimum wage in the amount of 18,000 denars in net amount, which represents an increase of 18.4% in relation to the value of the previous minimum wage.
According to Article 8 of the Minimum Wage Law, it was necessary to harmonize the salaries of all employees with an increase in the minimum wage.
The salaries of other employees who have a salary below the minimum, for some employees are aligned with the increase in the minimum salary, and without justifiable reasons and against the law, the Government did not do this for all employees in the public sector, i.e. flat-rate and without criteria, the salaries somewhere are not increased in general, and sometimes increase for certain categories of employees compared to other categories of employees in the public sector for whom the Government is the direct employer.
Acting in this way, the Government violated the principle of equality of citizens and workers, which is regulated in Article 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia in relation to the realization of their rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship.
Respecting the principle of equality and non-discrimination in the realization of labor rights as the most significant part of civil rights is an indicator of whether a state is democratically oriented and expresses equal care without discrimination towards all its citizens and workers.
The right to "a decent wage, that is, a wage that provides a decent standard of living" is a right guaranteed by international human rights instruments (Art. 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the UN; Part 1, point 4 of the European Social Charter), including international labor standards (primarily ILO Conventions and Recommendations). The right to "adequate earnings" is also a constitutionally guaranteed right in the Republic of North Macedonia, established in Art. 32, paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia. Since 2012, this right has been acquired with additional support through the adoption of the Law on the Minimum Wage.
The non-alignment of collective agreements with the Minimum Wage Law, i.e. the refusal of the Government to engage in a substantial social dialogue to increase other wages in proportion to the increase of the minimum wage is also the reason for a general strike in the entire public sector that has been going on for the third month already where the salaries of the employees are not harmonized and for the first time in the history of the Macedonian state there is a general strike in an entire sector that lasts so long, and a government refuses to talk to the representatives of the workers.
The government is well aware that it is obliged to act and apply Article 8 of the Minimum Wage Law and increase wages by the amount determined in the last minimum wage increase for all public sector employees without discrimination.
All the more so that in the private sector, especially where SSM has unions, private employers, acting according to the law, harmonized the collective agreements and increased the salaries of their employees, and so did the municipalities, the city of Skopje and the public enterprises established by the municipalities and the City of Skopje, and there are still those workers for whom the Government is responsible, such as the employees in part of the ministries and public enterprises for which the Government is the founder.
It follows that without the existence of real and justified reasons, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia acted contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, which regulates the obligation to respect the law, the laws and the full functioning of the legal state, i.e. the Republic of North Macedonia, The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia did not act in accordance with the Law on Minimum Wage, other laws and the rule of law and did not provide an increase in the wages of all employees in the public sector, but did so only for a part of the employees in the public sector in the country.
In this way, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, as a defendant in the procedure, violated the right to equal treatment by omitting actions and not taking them violated the right to equality, thereby discriminating against its employees.
In addition, by filing this Lawsuit, SSM will use all other available mechanisms and submit appropriate Lawsuits and reports to international institutions, for which we are already receiving help and support from the European Confederation of Trade Unions.
