With the symbolic call, “The big get richer, the small survive,” a protest had been planned for May 1 — International Workers’ Day — but it failed to take place because the organizers had not notified the police.

The protest, organized by the Association of Small Businesses, had been scheduled to take place in front of the Municipality of Prishtina and the EU Office.

The head of the Association of Small Businesses, Sadudin Hasani, announced that the protest was canceled due to failure to comply with the legal deadlines required for organizing it, but stressed that their demands and concerns remain the same.

“Today we had called a protest by the Association of Small Businesses to protest for workers’ rights, for better conditions, on the occasion of the May 1 holiday. However, because we did not comply with the deadlines set by law for calling a protest, we had to cancel it, but nevertheless we will give a statement to the media,” Hasani declared.

He said that the main concerns are related to violations of workers’ rights in small businesses, including the failure to respect the minimum wage and working conditions.

“In this case, we call on the institutions to respect the rights of workers in small businesses, because there are many workers whose rights are violated, and neither the minimum wage nor working conditions are respected,” he said.

Hasani also encouraged workers facing irregularities in their workplaces to speak out and demand their rights, emphasizing the importance of dignity at work.

“For workers who see irregularities at work, we encourage them to raise their voice for their rights, so that they can carry out the work they do with dignity and have dignity for the work they do,” Hasani stated.

In his May 1 message, he stressed that institutions should serve citizens and not behave as if they own workplaces, while also raising the issue of unequal treatment of small businesses compared to large companies.

“Our message is that institutions and institutional representatives are in the service of the citizens, and they should behave in this relationship with citizens not as owners of the workplaces where they work, but as servants of the citizens. Also, regarding the rights of small businesses, small businesses have the right to use space where rules are not violated, just like large businesses. Small businesses may use 100 square meters or 30 square meters, while we have businesses using thousands of square meters and they do not face the obstacles that we do,” he declared.

In addition, Hasani announced that a symbolic action had also been planned near the office of the European Union during the day, in order to draw attention to what he described as the lack of implementation of democratic standards in cases where workers’ rights are violated.

“We also had a symbolic action planned today at the EU office to make them aware that they have spent significant financial resources on the democratization of institutions in Kosovo, yet we see that where rights are violated, there can be no democracy,” Hasani said.

The Association of Small Businesses has warned that it will continue to raise its voice for workers’ rights and for more equal treatment of small businesses compared to large companies.