We are truly concerned about the gross violation of workers' rights across the country.
We currently have active cases of gross violations of labor rights in legal entities in the cities of Shtip, Bitola, Makedonski Brod, Makedonska Kamenica and Sveti Nikole.
In Shtip, an employer started working on Sundays, even though according to the Labor Relations Law, it is a weekly rest day, in accordance with Article 134, paragraph 2 of the Law.
In the industrial zone in Shtip, because we have members who are part of the LOUD UNION, we were informed that there is a gross violation of workers' rights, such as the introduction of a 10-hour workweek.
We, as a union, reacted immediately and the same irregularities were removed.
In Makedonska Kamenica, workers are registered for 2 hours even though they work 8 hours, and three times a week they work overtime for 11 hours.
In Sveti Nikole, an employer, because he had two registered companies, transferred the workers from one to another company and transformed the employment contract from an indefinite contract to a fixed-term contract. The workers are members of STČK, which is part of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (CSM), we do not have our own members, but legal assistance and advice was still requested from us.
We appeal to the CSM to check the contracts and whether there has been manipulation and abuse of workers' rights, and then to request their termination. CSM and STKČ have a responsibility to their members who each month pay membership fees for a union that should have a hearing for their problems.
In Bitola, we have an employer where workers are locked out, have constant overtime work, which is not recorded and not paid.
This trend of violation of workers' rights is worrying, especially after the statements and demands of the Chamber of Commerce represented by Branko Azeski, which demands a reduction in workers' rights, i.e. an initiative has been launched to return Sunday to be a working day, although we, as the Association for the Protection of Workers' Rights "Voice Textile" - Shtip and as the Voice Workers' Union, fought for a legal amendment, which resulted in our request being adopted for Sunday to be a weekly rest day, as per Article 134, paragraph 2 of the Labor Relations Law.
It is also important to note the fact that the new government and the Prime Minister are holding meetings with employers where they are discussing assistance and support for the private sector, and in relation to loans, credits and direct financial assistance, which we agree on, but there should be control over that assistance and support. So that we do not experience abuses like what happened with the six packages of economic measures in the corona crisis, where public money partially ended up in the pockets of certain employers, and not as salaries for workers.
But it is very evident that certain employers' organizations, at the same meetings, only demand the abolition of Sunday as a non-working day, and thus fewer rights for workers.
On the other hand, the demands of the workers and the problems they face have not been heard. Therefore, we are making a PUBLIC APPEAL TO PRIME MINISTER CHRISTIAN MICKOSKOSKI for a meeting in which we would explain the demands of the workers and the problems they face.
Namely, if this trend of low wages, disregard for the law, and no accountability continues, neither the foreign workers who come and go, nor the retirees who work "in the black market," will fill the vacancies in the real sector. On the contrary, we will hear about mass emigration and permanent job openings that cannot be filled.
We call on Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and the ministers to finally listen to the side of private sector workers on whom the economy of a country depends, to overcome these practices, and we hope that we will do this through social dialogue with the new government so that concrete solutions can be adopted to combat the problems and ultimately benefit those on whom everyone depends - the worker from the real sector.
To improve the standard of workers once and for all and to improve workers' rights.
We call on all workers to join the Loud Workers' Union en masse because finally there is a Union that will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the worker and that will always have a "hearing" for the worker's specific problem. The more we are in numbers - the stronger we are!
