Salaries are rising in the state and lower levels of Government in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The news would be encouraging if it was accompanied by official measures aimed at mitigating the consequences of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
Tomorrow, the BiH Parliament will consider the initiative to increase the amount of compensation for all state employees from four euros to six euros and to harmonize the amount of transport compensation with the average increase in a liter of fuel in the last year.
And Sarajevo citizens are also in favor of increasing salaries, but to citizens
For the past month, prices in BiH have been “going wild”.
According to the BiH Statistics Agency, prices of products and services used for personal consumption in April rose by 2.4 percent compared to the month before.
Even though prices are increasing, salaries are not.
Despite that fact, there were no proposals to increase the standards of citizens.
Instead, the member of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union of BiH (HDZ BiH), Nikola Lovrinovic, sent a request for an increase to the BiH Parliament, but only to employees in the state sector.
Lovrinovic says the goal of his initiative is to see if the BiH Council of Ministers can pass a bylaw, decision, or rulebook, and thus limit the increase in hot meals and travel expenses to those with the highest incomes.
”A soldier coming from, for example, Zepce (a town about 100 kilometers north of Sarajevo) to the Rajlovac barracks near Sarajevo can receive a maximum of 300 BAM for transport. That can’t be enough for him with these gasoline prices. My intention is to help them, not myself,”
Lovrinovic said, adding that “earlier decisions of the state executive say it must be harmonized, but it is not being done.”
He adds that parliamentarians are not entitled to daily travel expenses and that their job is their constituency.
The monthly income of parliamentarians ranges from 6.000 BAM (about 3,000 euros) to close to 8.000 BAM (4,000 euros).
The trade union announced new protests
The Independent Trade Union of Civil Servants and Employees in BiH Institutions announced protests for tomorrow when the parliamentary session is scheduled.
Salih Karcic, the president of the union, says that they are organizing the protest because of “further ignoring of the employees in the BiH institutions by the authorities.”, RSE writes.
E.Dz.
