The President of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, Slobodan Trendafilov, left the session of the Economic and Social Council today, accusing that the minimum wage is being adjusted "through the back door" with an increase of about 1.600 denars. According to him, such a solution does not correspond to the real growth of the cost of living and represents a formal, not a substantial improvement in the standard of workers.
Trendafilov said that if this scenario remains on the table, the unions will continue to exert pressure and announced new protests in mid-March. He assessed that decisions that directly affect hundreds of thousands of employees must not be made without real consent and social consensus.
From the government, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski stated that this is a matter of legal harmonisation of the minimum wage and that the dialogue between employers and unions should continue. The difference between “harmonisation” and “real increase” is once again becoming a central line of conflict – and the outcome will depend on whether this issue will be resolved at the table or on the street.
