SSOOiO KS: Government Again Violated Collective Agreement, We Have the Right to Call Workers to a General Strike

(Patria) - Revenues in the accounts of the state, entities, cantons and municipalities are growing higher and higher, with record amounts recorded in all, including the budget of the Sarajevo Canton, point out from the Cantonal Board (KO) of the Independent Union of Primary Education (SSOOiO) KS.

They note that the prices of food and other necessities for workers' lives are increasing enormously every day, especially in the Sarajevo Canton, where food prices have risen by over 100 percent in the last three years.

"Representatives of the Sarajevo Canton Government publicly boast that the salaries of education workers have increased by 48 percent in the last three years, but they do not provide other important information.

Representatives of the Sarajevo Canton Government conceal from the public that in the last three years they have simultaneously increased their own salaries by twice as much as the increase in salaries of education workers, nor have they said that the mentioned increase applies to all other workers in the Sarajevo Canton, not just education workers.

Representatives of the Sarajevo Canton Government did not tell us that educators, teachers and professors had salaries of 1,200 KM three years ago, while their salaries were 3,000 KM each.

And representatives of the Sarajevo Canton Government did not tell us that the salaries of educators, teachers and professors have increased by 500 KM in the last three years, while they increased their own salaries by 1,500 KM.

The fact is that workers' salaries have grown twice as slowly as food prices in the last three years, and it is necessary to increase the salaries of workers in kindergartens and primary schools in the Sarajevo Canton area by an additional 10 percent, and the salaries of directors by an additional 20 percent.

Education workers must have dignified salaries not only due to the increase in the cost of living, but also due to the importance of the profession they practice.

In accordance with Article 169 of the Collective Agreement for the activities of preschool education and primary education in the Sarajevo Canton ('Official Gazette of the Sarajevo Canton', numbers: 24/22, 40/22 and 7/24), on March 8, 2024, the Union submitted to the Sarajevo Canton Government in written form the Initiative for Amendments to the Collective Agreement and attached a proposal for amendments and a proposal for a protocol for conducting negotiations.

According to Article 169, paragraph (2) of the Collective Agreement, the Sarajevo Canton Government was obliged to respond to the submitted Initiative by March 23, 2024, and by April 8, 2024, the Sarajevo Canton Government had to commence negotiations on the amendments initiated by the Union.

We publicly state that the Sarajevo Canton Government has violated the Collective Agreement (provision of Article 169).

Article 169, paragraph (4) clearly specified that the Union has the right to call workers to a strike without prior conciliation proceedings if the Government does not respond to the submitted Union initiative and does not commence negotiations within the prescribed period of 30 days.

We remind the public that on March 16, 2024, due to the unilateral violation of the agreement of February 12, 2024, by the Sarajevo Canton Government, the Union already made a decision and called on its membership, numbering over 4,000 workers, to enter into daily warning strikes lasting two teaching hours each, which will begin on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, and will continue until the demands are met, but no later than the end of the school year.

We emphasize once again that the Union's demands are:

1. annulment of the Pedagogical Standards and Norms that threaten the rights of education workers;

2. resignation of the Minister of Education of the Sarajevo Canton, who has jeopardized the rights of education workers;

3. halting administrative reforms that turn education workers into mere clerks;

4. better regulations, curricula and textbooks that will be continuously adapted and improved in line with the needs of modern education, and especially the needs of children, students, workers, the labor market and the latest technologies, with mandatory participation and consideration of the views of workers, employers and entrepreneurs.

Finally, we inform the public and membership that consultations, information sharing and union meetings of members of bodies and Union members are currently being held at the level of all 70 union branches regarding the warning strike scheduled for April 17 and other methods of union struggle that will be applied in 2024.

Information from the field is very positive and shows that the union membership is ready, united and determined to enter the warning strike on April 17," stated the KO SSOOiO KS.