Five trade unions in Republika Srpska, which represent about 55 thousand employees in the public sector, claim that they were cheated by the government when it comes to the Agreement they reached with the Government last year on salary increases, while earlier in the Government they claimed the exact opposite. In the following days, the trade unionists announced joint activities and the organization of a trade union committee, and they do not rule out protests at the beginning of September.
Unions in Republika Srpska, which bring together workers employed in public administration, the police, the health sector and the judiciary, have started joint activities in order to once again ask the Government to fully comply with the Agreement signed last year, by which the Government committed itself to analyzing the budget and rising prices to raise and salaries up to the amount that is now a hot meal and one-twelfth of the holiday allowance. They do not rule out the possibility of a protest at the beginning of September.
“Are protests a choice, one of the options, they certainly are, for the simple reason that we have been deceived. Civil servants, police officers, doctors, nurses, educators, workers in the judiciary have been mitigating the crisis behind their backs for fifteen years,” President of the Republika Srpska Administration Union, Božo Marić said.
At the end of the second quarter, the working group of the Government and trade unions analyzed the budget and price growth, where they were again divided. While the trade unionists see the wage increase as justified, the government is determined that there is no question of it, as evidenced by the statement of the finance minister at the time.
“Whoever wants to be angry can be angry, but there is no room for salary increases. We have to watch incomes grow. VAT is falling and will continue to fall. Frankly, we have no justification to increase salaries in the public administration. It would not be fair if we now raise salaries enormously in the public sector , because then what are we going to do with reality?”, said Zora Vidović at the time.
Among these five trade unions is not the Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture, which is a signatory of the earlier Agreement with the Government. The biggest problem for them is still the long-standing request to equalize the coefficients with other budget users, and there are about 23 thousand of them employed. They say they expect negotiations in the coming days.
“I expect progress, progress for the better. We will see what the reality is, what is possible, and that the long-standing injustice towards workers in education, science and culture will be corrected and that we continue cooperation and negotiations in accordance with laws and regulations”, he said. President of the Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture of the RS Dragan Gnjatić.
It is still too early to say whether tens of thousands of workers from the public sector will take to the streets to demand higher wages, because there have been no gatherings for this reason in RS for years. It should be recalled that last year, five unions threatened to protest when they submitted an interpellation to the parliament in which they requested the allocation of a hot meal and holiday allowance from the salary, after which the government relented and concluded an agreement.
