4.7.2018
Upon demand of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM), as a representative trade union and a social partner in the Republic of Macedonia, a procedure for the preparation of a new Labour Law had been initiated, which should be adopted by the end of this 2018 year. The goal of the adoption of the Law is to provide the highest level of incorporation of the ILO standards and the European directives and recommendations in the regulation of labour relations in the Republic of Macedonia.
In the meantime, prior to the adoption of the new Labour Law, SSM and the other social partners have deemed that urgent amendments to the Labour Law are needed in order to provide protection of workers' rights and legal certainty in the application of the existing legal solutions until the adoption of the new Labour Law.
SSM considered that a number of provisions in the Law were unclear and imprecise and as such did not provide equal application as well as some of them violate the constitutional principle of equality of citizens before the laws.
In order to overcome this situation, the social partners agreed on amendments to the Labour Law that were made with the adoption of the Law on Amending the Labour Law, published in the Official Gazette of RM, no. 120 of June 29, 2018.
With these changes, SSM and the other social partners have agreed on:
- reduction of the duration of the deadline for publishing of public announcements from 5 to 3 working days;
- reduction of the probationary period from 6 to 4 months;
- obligatory content of the employment contract is being envisaged, whereby the employees shall know exactly what are their rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship by signing the contract;
- the provision for compulsory written warning by the employer in the procedure before the cancellation of the employment contract is being specified, if there is a personal reason on the side of the employee;
- it is stipulated that the period within which the employee needs to improve his work when cancelling the employment contract due to personal reasons for the employee can not be shorter than 15 days from the receipt of the written warning;
- the deadlines for the expiration of the termination of the employment contract due to reasons of guilt on the part of the employee are being equalized with those deadlines for the expiration of the termination of the employment contract due to personal reasons;
- the law provisions for criteria application determined in the collective agreement have been supplemented and criteria for protection of disabled persons, single parents and parents of children with special needs in case of cancellations due to business reasons;
- In order to provide protection against abuse by the employer in case of cancellation of the contract for business reasons, a provision has been created that the employer who cancelled the employment contract for business reasons can not employ another worker within 2 years from the day of the termination of employment on the same job place, with the same professional qualifications, as well as additional protection of the employee whose employment contract was terminated due to business reasons by giving her/him priority to employment in need of performing the same work with same qualifications has been created;
- the number of severance pays in case of cancellation of the employment contract for business reasons has been increased;
- the deadline for submitting a written statement for the extension of the employment contract has been defined;
- the percentage of the minimum wage for a trainee has been increased from 40% to 70%;
- the meaning of the term “adequate food” for a night worker by has been defined, determining the allowance for food expenses in the amount of 20% of the average net salary per worker paid in the Republic of Macedonia in the previous year, only for the days when the worker is working at night. The same article specifies that the worker can not be assigned to night work if there is no public transport, and the employer does not provide conditions for transportation to and from work;
- the right to use the annual leave of workers who work six days a week with workers who work five days a week has been defined, and the mismatch over the duration of the part of the annual leave to be used during the calendar year for which the leave is given has been overcome and that should be two continuous working weeks.
As before, SSM shall monitor the implementation of the Labour Law and all other relevant laws and shall initiate changes and new legal solutions in the direction of promotion and full realization and protection of workers' rights. The European orientation and the application of the ILO standards are a continuous challenge and goal in creating the activities of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia.
