New collective agreement signed in ZDK Government: Teachers to get 10 percent higher salaries and new allowances from January 1

(Patria) - The Government of the Zenica-Doboj Canton gave its consent this morning at an emergency session to the Collective Agreement for primary and secondary education activities on the territory of ZDK, and subsequently signed these two collective agreements, which will be valid until August 30, 2026.

Premier Nezir Pivić stated after signing the agreement that education workers in this canton, who received a 15 percent salary increase at the beginning of January, will have at least an additional 10 percent higher salaries from January 1 next year. The signing of the new collective agreements, he noted, testifies to the commitment of the ZDK Government to continue quality cooperation with unions and employees in the field of education.

"After the salary increase at the beginning of the year of 15 percent, this pace continues for the next year. I am glad to hear from union representatives that this is the highest quality collective agreement so far. We are especially pleased that we will continue the dialogue and that, in addition to addressing the material status of employees, we are also addressing other issues in education. I am referring to infrastructure and free textbooks, which we have secured for all elementary school students from first to ninth grade," said Premier Pivić, adding that the new salary increase will burden the ZDK budget by an additional 16 to 20 million KM annually.

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Mirza Mušija expressed satisfaction with the agreement reached and the dialogue with social partners, thereby meeting their demands and avoiding the situation some other cantons find themselves in.

"We are especially pleased that, in the context of these events in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and certain types of disagreement between unions and union representatives with the authorities, we have, unlike that practice, a very nice practice of managing to find a good dialogue with social partners - that social partners, who can best articulate the needs of the education system and the people in it, present those needs, which we consider together and find ways to meet those needs.

Ultimately, the most important thing for us is to have satisfied people, who carry out that educational process and who, with their satisfaction and what they have received, will bring new quality to education," said Minister Mušija.

He expressed confidence that this will improve the entire teaching process. He announced that the new collective agreement will additionally financially "consider all people who have additional burdens in their work," which are now recognized through the payment of salary supplements.

President of the Independent Union of Primary Education and Upbringing of ZDK and the SSOOiO FBiH and President of the Union of Independent Unions of BiH Selvedin Šatorović thanked the ZDK Government for its continuous support to around 6,000 employees in the education sector of this canton, which is more than two-thirds of employees who receive salaries from the ZDK budget.

"We must reiterate that the ZDK Government in this term has continued the continuity of sensitivity towards education workers, which was also shown by previous governments, except for the government of Amra Mehmedić, which led the government in 2023 and which did not consider education workers worthy of negotiating and improving their economic and social status during that period.

I can say that we have made a breakthrough and that this is the best collective agreement we have signed since we have been doing this at the ZDK level. I will remind you that the parameters here are from 10 to 29 percent, while the previous collective agreement, which had the highest parameters, was 26 percent.

Bearing in mind the modest budget of ZDK, which is, for example, 2.5 times smaller compared to the budget of Sarajevo Canton, it shows that this government truly takes care of the interests and economic and social status of workers in the field of education," said Šatorović, who noted that work is also being done simultaneously on improving working conditions.

Satisfaction with the new collective agreement was also expressed by the President of the Independent Union of Secondary and Higher Education of ZDK Dževad Hadžić, who emphasized that the collective agreement retained all rights from the existing agreement, but also brought significant advances.

"We have also received new benefits that will be effective from January 1, 2025, in terms of recognizing work in upbringing, that is, class teaching. We are satisfied with that, as well as with the 10 percent increase in salary grade coefficients for all workers in education," said Hadžić.