The Prime Minister of the country, Albin Kurti, calling for solidarity and trade union organization on the occasion of May 1, said that "the struggle of workers in the private sector against oligarch employers is not presented, it is suppressed and suppressed and kept deliberately silent".
Kurti wrote on Facebook that the Government is an ally of the workers, adding that more unity, more organization and more power are needed.
"May 1 teaches us that only united in society and in the workplace can we ensure our rights and work for a prosperous future for everyone. This lesson is especially valuable today considering the macro aggression in the world with pandemic, war, rising authoritarianism and economic crisis. However, the micro-aggression of other issues that affect the life and work of the worker on a daily basis tends to be postponed and left aside and this did not happen. We also see it in our country, on the one hand it is given space and it is tried to project an interest in issues related to geopolitics and the autocratic neighbor, while on the other hand the struggle of workers in the private sector against oligarch employers is not presented, it is suppressed and suppressed and kept deliberately silent. Workers in the private sector must stand in solidarity with each other and organize through their unions. We must be their reliable and willing allies. Only united, with powerful unions and with broad social and institutional support can the tendencies of oligarchic employers to exploit and silence workers be repelled. More union, more organization, more power", writes Kurti.
He further said that during the last 12 months, they have shown increased care for the condition of workers in our society.
"The Central Labor Inspectorate to supervise workers' rights in 2023, compared to 2020, has tripled the number of inspections, carrying out 8,114 inspections. We doubled the budget for the Inspectorate, which during the years 2022 and 2023, through recruitment procedures, doubled the number of labor inspectors. This year the number of inspectors reaches 150, thus fulfilling our promise of fivefold the number of labor inspectors. We started the mandate with measures that encourage the declaration of workers, such as measure 1.2 of the Economic Revitalization Package. Because an undeclared worker without a contract cannot even ask for the realization of his rights. We intensified the work for the declaration of workers with the launch of joint inspections of the Labor Inspectorate and the Tax Administration of Kosovo, where more than 10 workers were declared in the first two months alone. In the process is also the adjustment of the declaration of seasonal workers and in the household sector, this problem of several years, thus ensuring that we have payment of pension contributions and dignified treatment in all sectors of the economy", he wrote.
According to him, for about 100 workers in the private sector, they also approved the draft law that enables the increase of the minimum wage, and as he writes, "implementation will begin as soon as the law voted in the Assembly of the Republic is unblocked by the Constitutional Court."
"We undertook a series of employment measures which resulted in an increase in employment for 70 jobs in the first three years of government. In addition to measures for employment, we also took measures to increase wages. In the private sector, we subsidized the salary increase for 17 workers, while in the public sector last year we raised salaries by 17% on average and this year by another 5%. For about 100 workers in the private sector, we also approved the draft law that enables the increase of the minimum wage, and the implementation will begin as soon as the law voted in the Assembly of the Republic is unblocked by the Constitutional Court".
Otherwise, today in Kosovo for May 1, several protests were held by the trade unions, through which awareness is required for the rights of workers
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