BEFORE SCHEDULING PROTESTS Unions Seek Meeting with Uko and Determination of the Wage Calculation Base for 2025

(Patria) - At the meeting of the Union Coordination held on January 14, 2025, it was decided that before making a decision on new protests and a decision on a warning strike in the Sarajevo Canton area, a request for a meeting would be sent to the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uko. At this meeting, before the adoption of the proposal for the Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2025 and the proposal of the Law on the Execution of the Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2025, the Government of Sarajevo Canton and the Union Coordination would agree on the amount of the base for calculating the salaries of workers in the Sarajevo Canton area for 2025.

"Two months ago, the last negotiations were held between the Government of Sarajevo Canton and the Union Coordination, where we did not agree on the amount of the base for calculating the salaries of workers in the Sarajevo Canton area for 2025. This was because, in response to the Union Coordination's request that the base for calculating the salaries of workers in the Sarajevo Canton area in 2025 be 425.00 KM, the Government of Sarajevo Canton replied that it would gladly increase the base but lacked the means, and that the base would remain at 385.00 KM.

After those negotiations, the Government of Sarajevo Canton proposed a draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2025 and a draft Law on the Execution of the Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2025, in which it was defined that the base for calculating the salaries of workers in the Sarajevo Canton area in 2025 would be 385.00 KM.

What happened in the meantime is as follows:

1. The Union Coordination organized protests in front of the building of the Government of Sarajevo Canton, in which a large number of workers participated, expressing great dissatisfaction because the base for calculating salaries for 2025 in the draft Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2025 and the draft Law on the Execution of the Budget of Sarajevo Canton for 2025 was not increased;

2. The Union Coordination held consultations with all caucuses of representatives in the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton, where support was received for the request to increase the base for calculating the salaries of workers in the Sarajevo Canton area for 2025, and where all agreed that it is better to resolve misunderstandings at the negotiating table rather than through protests and strikes;

3. All municipalities in the Sarajevo Canton area have increased the base for workers in those municipalities to 467.00 KM;

4. All cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have increased the base for workers in those cantons, and these range from 400.00 KM (Bosnian-Podrinje Canton) to 476.00 KM (Tuzla Canton).

5. The Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that by the end of this week, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will propose the Budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (in that proposal, the base for workers at the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be increased to 480.00 KM).

The aforementioned data are devastating for 16,200 workers in the Sarajevo Canton area, as workers in the Sarajevo Canton area have the lowest base for calculating salaries compared to workers in municipalities within the Sarajevo Canton area, compared to workers in other cantons, and compared to workers at the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Within 7 days, we expect a written invitation to a meeting where we expect an agreement on increasing the base for calculating the salaries of workers in the Sarajevo Canton area in 2025.