VMRO-DPMNE MP Bojan Stojanoski addressed the legislative amendments proposed in January 2024 in a public statement, claiming that they envisaged a fundamental change in the methodology for calculating wages in the public sector.
According to the MP, the then government led by SDS and DUI proposed that the minimum wage not be part of the formula for calculating the wages of administrative employees, although this, as he stated, was foreseen in the collective agreement signed with the SSM.
Stojanoski assessed that such a change would mean the cessation of the automatic adjustment of other wages to the increase in the minimum wage and the weakening of, as he said, the protective mechanism for workers. The MP added that the unions reacted at the time by saying that they had become acquainted with the draft law through the Parliament’s website, without prior public debate and without discussion within the Economic and Social Council.
The statement reads that VMRO-DPMNE MPs, along with the SSM leadership, submitted more than 40 amendments, which, according to Stojanoski, prevented the adoption of the decision that would exclude the minimum wage from the calculation. One of the key amendments, as he pointed out, was the union’s proposal that the minimum wage remain the basis for calculation, which would maintain the linear growth of income. MP Stojanoski stressed that, in his opinion, this is precisely why wages in the public sector are growing today with the increase in the minimum wage and assessed that the current government continues to respect the same principle.
