The Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo asks Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his Government to take into consideration the difficult financial situation of businesses and not condition the workers of the private sector, just as the workers of the public sector and public companies are not conditioned.
The Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo also asks the Government and the Assembly to take into account these requests and make the immediate execution of the allowances or in two parts for private sector workers in the amount of 200 euros, as it is giving to public sector workers, as these workers together with businesses are the most deserving and the pillar of the country’s budget and development.
The President of the Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo, Skënder Krasniqi, in a press conference, said that according to the Government’s decision in September, public sector workers for 4 consecutive months will receive 50 euros more or 200 euros, despite the fact that they have higher salaries than in the private sector.
Krasniqi said that the workers of public companies are receiving allowances from the state budget without any conditions, even though their salaries are almost 80 percent higher than those of the private sector.
“The Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo asks the Prime Minister of Kosovo and the Government of Kosovo to take into consideration the difficult financial situation of businesses and not condition the workers of the private sector, just as the workers of the public sector and the workers of public companies are not conditioned. With the decision made in September by the Government, public sector workers for 4 consecutive months are receiving 50 euros more, which means 200 euros, despite the fact that they have higher salaries than workers of the private sector, and also the workers of public companies are receiving allowances from the state budget without any condition, even though their salaries are almost 80 percent higher than those of the private sector”, he said.
Krasniqi said that the realization of this measure, based on the analyzes that Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo is doing, turns out to be very difficult for a large part of businesses. This is because private sector employers, which is the majority, as a result of insufficient support from the state, which is the smallest in the region and Europe, are finding it very difficult to keep workers at work, let alone raising salaries.
This is because businesses are encountering many problems with collection of funds and ensuring financial stability, so that it does not come to bankruptcy.
He said that businesses continuously raise salaries based on the opportunities they have, which is related to the sectors, market demand, their capacities, and the fiscal policies offered by the country.
“Unfortunately, the Government’s response is very clumsy, and very slow, and is not in line with the needs and demands of businesses at this time. Of course, we are waiting, we are in constant consultation with businesses, and based on this situation we will look at other actions related to the government’s lack of response. We hope that the prime minister will find time to deal with the main pillar of the country, which is development. And the main pillar of development are businesses. When businesses have challenges, problems, then the state, workers, and we all have problems. Non-development of the country, and non-increase in employment compared to the needs that are. There are about 400,000 employees out of 1.2 million citizens of working age, whereas countries in the region like North Macedonia have over 800,000 employees with the same population, this happens as a result of their policies, which they have better”, he said.
However, Krasniqi said that the same violations of workers’ rights were committed even at the beginning of the pandemic.
“The same violations of workers’ rights were also committed at the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, where private sector workers who were dismissed, as a result of the bans by the Government, for the month of March they received 170 euros at the end of April, whereas for the month of April they received those payments in September despite the fact that their salaries were 400, 500 or 1000 euros, whereas public sector workers, even though over 80 percent of them did not work during 2020 and 2021, received their full salaries from the Kosovo budget. We consider that this is a serious constitutional violation of the rights of citizens and workers, and the relevant institutions should deal with these issues”, he said.
Also, Hamdi Malushaj from the Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo has raised the concern that with the wrong policies of the current government, in addition to the departure of people, large serious companies are also leaving the country.
“In addition to individuals, companies have also started to leave. They have founded companies in Germany, and there are large Kosovo companies in Switzerland and Germany that left the country because of wrong policies. Today, this government does not have the goal of developing the country through the private sector”, he said.
The Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo (CTIK) partially welcomed the decision taken by the Government of Kosovo during the month of September to support public and private sector workers.
However, CTIK once again opposes the decision of the Government of Kosovo to condition the support of private sector workers with salary increases from businesses, a condition that has not been imposed on public sector workers. CTIK also asks to take into account the continuous requests that it is sending to the relevant institutions to overcome the crisis as easily as possible and increase the economic development of the country. At the same time, it invites the institutions to a direct dialogue in order to discuss the situation of businesses on the ground, since the Chamber of Trade and Industry Kosovo is in constant contact with businesses every day.
