The President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, Darko Dimovski and the Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev had a working meeting in the Government which was also attended by the presidents of several branch unions from SSM from the public sector: Ljubisa Karanfilovski, President of the Independent Trade Union of Health, Pharmacy and Social Welfare, Miko Stojanovski, President of the Union of Traffic and Communications, Marjan Kicev, President of the Macedonian Police Union, in the presence of Slobodan Trendafilov, Chief of Cabinet of SSM and Milan Zivkovic, the Advisor to the Prime Minister.
The working meeting, initiated by the union leaders of SSM, is a good example of the excercise of the social dialogue in the Republic of North Macedonia.
One of the topic discussed on this meeting was the signing of the new General Collective Agreement for the public sector employees, and the general conclusion was that annual leave allowance shall be applied to all including public sector employees who have lost this right 15 years ago.
The meeting also discussed issues such as informal economy, creation of new jobs and better economic status of all workers.
"The government remains a major supporter of workers and we believe that union organizing is healthy for the state, as a serious partner in the regulation of workers' rights in public institutions and the private sector," said the Prime Minister Zaev.
The President of SSM and SUTKOZ, Darko Dimovski elaborate the issues of the utility workers, thier position in society, and challenges they have been facing with since the beginning of the health crisis.
The President of the Independent Trade Union for Health, Pharmacy and Social Welfare, Ljubisa Karanfilovski, who is also the Vice President of the Council of SMS for collective bargaining, conveyed the requests of the health professionals and all public sector workers to regulate the right to payment of K-15 and presented the views of SSM regarding the need for signing of the New General Collective Agreement for the public sector employees.
The President of the Macedonian Police Union and Vice President of the Council of SSM for Public Sector, Marjan Kicev said that the Government and the Ministry of Interior need to pay a one-time bonus to the employees of the Ministry of Interior for their engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic and the need of building the capacities of the Ministry with new professionals.
