Minister of Labor and Social Policy Jovanka Trenchevska in TV Telma’s “Top Tema political show stressed that the social dialogue with the unions should continue until an appropriate solution was found and added that two meetings were not enough to resolve such an important issue.
The Minister referred to the increase in the salaries of the employees in the kindergartens made by this Government.
“In 2017, the salary of an educator was 18,300 denars, in February, 2022 the salary was 26,574 denars. For kindergarten workers, now the average salary is 19,560 denars, and in 2017 the kindergarten workers received a salary of 14,493 denars,” said Trenchevska.
The minister pointed out that according to the collective agreement signed in 2019, between MLSP and SONK, all requirements are met, and the signing of a new collective agreement will provide for all requests submitted by unions, such as working hours for trainees and career development, something the ministry is working on currently, in order to provide greater rights for employees in the kindergartens.
Regarding the negotiations so far, Trenchevska said that the meetings discussed the establishment of a salary system in the public sector, which would be agreed jointly, the goal is for salaries to have a steady growth. As well as adjusting wages with an increase in average wages and living costs.
“At this moment we need to focus on the economy, an increase of 18.4% is not appropriate in a time of economic and energy crisis, when the government recently raised the minimum wage, raised pensions and adopted a set of anti-crisis measures. The momentum for raising the salaries by 18.4% is unrealistic,” Trenchevska said.
