Today, the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton Edin Forto and the President of the Cantonal Board of the Independent Trade Union of Primary Education of FBiH Saudin Sivro signed a Collective Agreement for preschool, primary education in Sarajevo Canton.
This is a retroactive application of the agreement that will be valid from May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2024. All employees in kindergartens and primary schools in Canton Sarajevo will have higher salaries by 7 percent through an increase in coefficients.
Initiative launched
The CS government recognized the need and launched an initiative towards the Independent Trade Union of Primary Education of the Federation of BiH – Sarajevo Cantonal Board for the adoption of a new collective agreement to increase the rights of workers in education.
“Today’s signature is important for several reasons. From the beginning, this government wanted to improve the status of workers in education. If we look at average salaries, this is a sector that is one of the lowest paid and the focus of the CS Government in the future will be to improve working conditions in this area,” said Forto.
Naida Hota-Muminovic, Minister of Education of CS, pointed out that the negotiations were carried out intensively in order to harmonize and conclude a collective agreement as soon as possible.
“It is defined that the beginning of the application of this Collective Agreement will be from the month of May, in order to mitigate the economic consequences on the salaries of educators. Basic coefficients have been increased by seven percent, while with allowances for difficult working conditions, the basic salary can be increased by up to 25 percent. The trainees had their salaries reduced by 20 percent, and the Government initiated the reduction not to be 20 percent, but five percent,” said Hota-Muminovic.
Additional improvements
The President of the Cantonal Board of the Independent Trade Union of Primary Education of FBiH Saudin Sivro, said that in addition to increasing the basic coefficients, the collective agreement brings 36 other improvements and 30 preserved essential rights for workers.
“Workers in preschool and primary education will be fully protected in the next two years and we hope to start a social dialogue with the KS Government in the coming months on increasing labor costs through the base or in some other way,” said Sivro.
