Numerous initiatives of the Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro (USSCG) in the previous period have remained unanswered by the Government of Montenegro, and our many years of efforts to make the Social Council efficient have been in vain, since the agreements between social partners and representatives of the Government, who participate in the work of this body, have often been changed in the Parliament of Montenegro, by the parliamentary majority, said the Secretary General of the Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro (USSCG) in a letter to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić.
The USSCG said that they expect the Government to take the necessary actions to correct the factual situation, creating conditions for the full inclusion of representatives of social partners in all processes, and that otherwise they will be forced to leave the work of the Social Council and thus point out to our European and international partners the feigned social dialogue at a time of key processes for our society and employees.
We transmit the letter in its entirety:
"Mr. Spajić,
The Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro (USSCG) has been committed to the promotion of social dialogue as a key mechanism for achieving goals of interest, not only for the world of work but for all citizens of Montenegro. Despite our efforts to establish a quality and well-argued social dialogue at the national level, since we are recognized by the Constitution as a social partner of the Government of Montenegro, our efforts most often remain unsuccessful. The reason for this is the lack of genuine will on the part of the Government of Montenegro and decision-makers to establish a dialogue with those who represent one of the most important structures of any society, namely the representatives of the working-age population who create new value and build our society, in accordance with good practice, but also the obligations prescribed by the Constitution, the Law on Social Council, the Law on Trade Union Representation and international legal standards. In relation to the above, we would like to highlight the visible efforts of the Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Dialogue, Ms. Naida Nišić, to raise social dialogue to a higher level, who approaches the initiatives of social partners with due attention and advocates for the implementation of conclusions and proposals agreed by consensus at the level of the Social Council.
Numerous initiatives of the USSCG in the previous period remained unanswered by the Government of Montenegro, and our long-standing efforts to make the Social Council efficient have been in vain, since the agreements between social partners and representatives of the Government, who participate in the work of this body, have often been changed in the Parliament of Montenegro, by the parliamentary majority. Despite the efforts of the Government of Montenegro, especially at international gatherings, to present its relationship with social dialogue and social partners as adequate and essential in building a democratic society and full access to the community of developed European countries, practice shows the opposite. We will cite just some of the examples that confirm the above:
- On April 30, 2024, we sent you a request for a discussion on the necessity of housing policy reform (and then an urgency). To date, we have not even received a response to the requests submitted, although this is an initiative that concerns all citizens of Montenegro, and especially future generations. Instead, we learned from the media about the intention of the Government of Montenegro to begin the implementation of the "Velje brdo" project, which intention arose without an inclusive and transparent process that necessarily required the involvement of all interested parties, primarily those who have been advocating housing policy reform for a decade or more, as the USSCG does;
- The relevant Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Dialogue, by its Decision of 29.01.2025., at the initiative of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Dialogue, formed a tripartite Working Group to work on the creation of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the Labor Fund. At the level of the Working Group, a Draft was prepared that was the subject of a Public Hearing, after which it was expected that the Government would put it into further procedure. However, at the session of the First Spring Session of the Parliament, the Proposal for a Law on Amendments to the Law on the Labor Fund, submitted by a group of deputies, was considered. What is particularly worrying in the overall developments related to this legal text is the fact that the amendment activities of deputies Slađana Kaluđerović and Bogdan Božović (SNP) and deputy Vasilije Čarapic (PES) reduced the number of members of the Management Board of the Labor Fund to the detriment of social partners (not to the detriment of representatives of the Government of Montenegro). This, despite the fact that a compromise was reached at the level of the Working Group that the current composition of the Management Board would not be changed, given that: social partners in this body have made special contributions and efforts in the previous period, and have suffered significant sacrifices trying to introduce legality into the work of the Fund; that we are the country with the largest number of ministries, advisors, official vehicles and budget allocations for the needs of political parties, and the question arises as to why there are no cuts in this area, but only to the detriment of social partners; that negotiations are underway at the level of the Working Group for the Drafting of the Law on the Representativeness of Trade Unions and Employers' Associations, but also at the level of the Social Council on creating conditions for adequate representation of all social partners in the decision-making bodies of all bodies in which, with the appearance of the USSCG on the trade union scene, the number of members representing social partners has been reduced (primarily representing trade unions who are forced to rotate their representatives in these bodies halfway through their mandate, which prevents them from continuously monitoring and participating in their work). Apart from the question of who and why the initiative came from, for the proposers of the aforementioned Bill to submit an amendment to the article concerning the number and composition of members of the Management Board (at the Working Group, representatives of the Labour Fund requested this change), it is particularly worrying that MP Čarapić participated in the creation and submission of an amendment that completely deviates from the unified position of the Government and social partners reached at the level of the Working Group;
- Although the representatives of the Government and social partners at the level of the Social Council reached a one hundred percent consensus in August 2024 on the amendment of the Labor Law in the part relating to the return to the previous state of the provision regarding the termination of employment by force of law (from 66 to 67 years of age), through the amendment action of the parliamentary majority (!) this proposal, although the result of social dialogue, was deleted from the Bill on Amendments to the Labor Law, and it was not discussed in the plenary session. All of the above despite the opposition of the Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Welfare, who, in her capacity as a representative of the proponent of the law, participated, among other things, in the work of the session of the Committee on Health, Labor and Social Welfare held on 05.09.2024.
We have learned from the media (which is a clear example of inadequate social dialogue) that the Government of Montenegro, through its line ministries, has formed working groups for:
- preparation of the Draft Law on Accounting and Financial Operations of Non-Profit Organizations, which, as announced, will also include trade unions. Despite this, the USSCG (we believe that other social partners) have not been invited to participate in the work of the Working Group. There is a real threat that without the participation of social partners, there will be a gross violation of the conventions of the International Labor Organization that guarantee the independence of the activities of trade union organizations;
- preparation of the Draft Law on the Management of State-Owned Companies, in which, also, representatives of the USSCG are not represented (we believe, neither are other social partners). The above is despite the fact that we have submitted to the Government of Montenegro, headed by you, a Platform that, among other things, contains our initiative related to the implementation of the Congress Resolution on the Protection of Economic Entities of National Interest, with an emphasis on the need to introduce a system of accountability and depoliticization of their management, and in connection with which we have been conducting an extensive campaign for more than a year, demanding the adoption of a special law that would protect the status of economic entities of national interest and the manner of their management;
- preparation of the Draft Law on Public Institutions, which, as we understand, will regulate not only the establishment of public institutions at the central and local levels, define management bodies and work control, but also define the status of employees, which is why the involvement of trade unions, i.e. social partners, was necessary and implied.
In addition to the above, it is important to mention the following:
- the formation of a Just Transition Council, which, among other things, has the authority to participate in the development and monitoring of the implementation of the Just Transition Plan and ensure an inclusive approach to the Just Transition. In order to be just, the transition that lies ahead must necessarily include workers in all processes, starting with those related to the creation of plans and policies related to the improvement of the legislative and institutional framework. The absence of social partners in the work of these bodies in itself speaks of the lack of transparency and non-inclusiveness of the process, which will have the greatest consequences for workers, jobs and the future of work;
- the process of planning, and especially the implementation of the centralized payroll system, which threatens to completely change the way salaries are calculated for a significant number of employees (primarily in education) to their detriment, was carried out without prior consultations or even information, and especially without involving social partners;
- The process of planning and adopting the Reform Agenda as a roadmap, which should be a process of everyone, not just the Government of Montenegro, was carried out without prior consultations and participation of social partners, which resulted, among other things, in the Reform Agenda not recognizing the need to strengthen the capacities of social partners and social dialogue.
Of particular concern is the practice by which members of the parliamentary majority, without prior transparent procedures and without involving the public and social partners, process amendments to legal solutions that are important for the world of work, but also for the freedom and rights of all citizens of Montenegro. A clear example of this is the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Public Assemblies, which disproportionately restricts one of the fundamental freedoms and rights, the right to peaceful assembly.
We would also like to remind you that at the end of 2024 we addressed you with a request to extend (at least for the same period) the right to use the business premises for the work and activities of our organization until the issue of union property is resolved. As we informed you in that letter, all unions that were part of the USSCG in 2007 (when we initiated the process of reforming the only union headquarters in Montenegro until then) were forcibly evicted from their union premises. Thus, our unions were left without union property that was created by generations of their members from 1945 until the fall of socialism, namely the Education Union, the University of Montenegro Union, and other unions (metalworkers, healthcare, telecommunications, trade...). In 2008, we lost a court case in front of an "honorable" court for claiming a part of the property and had to pay over 20.000 euros in court costs to the lawyer who represented the interests of the Union of Serbian Trade Unions (who, coincidentally, was the brother of the then Minister of Finance). To make matters worse, in all previous years, governments have been leasing 2/3 of the union property from the Union of Serbian Trade Unions for their own needs, and they are still doing so today, while we have been operating from rented apartments for more than ten years from our own funds (which are funds that our members allocate from their net earnings), and we have been holding sessions of our bodies in rented cafés and restaurant halls. Finally, according to the practice that applies to parliamentary parties, as a representative social partner, in 2019 we received from the Government, for five years, temporary use (until the completion of the process of distributing union property), office and business premises for holding sessions of our 19 branch and three professional unions). To date, however, there has been no response, and USSCG, although a representative social partner in accordance with the Constitution, is conducting its trade union struggle and participation in social dialogue with complete uncertainty about the future fate of the business premises it currently uses. In the same year, the Government of Montenegro established and submitted to the parliamentary procedure the Proposal for a Law on Amendments to the Law on Inspection Supervision, without prior involvement of social partners, despite the fact that this is one of the solutions in which social partners are closely interested, and despite the fact that USSCG has repeatedly requested amendments to the aforementioned law.
From all of the above, which is only a part of the activities of the Government, or rather the relevant ministries, it clearly follows that social partners are not recognized as necessary and unavoidable factors in all the processes we as a society go through. Talking about the importance of social dialogue in front of European officials does not mean its real existence.
We expect that, following this address, you will undertake the necessary activities to correct the factual situation, creating conditions for the full inclusion of social partner representatives in all the above-mentioned processes. We also believe that in the future, by your own example of respecting social dialogue, you will influence the ministries within the Government, when creating policies within their portfolio, to inform, consult and enable social partner representatives to participate in the work of tripartite and multipartite bodies and working groups that they form.
"Otherwise, we will be forced to abandon the work of the Social Council and thus point out to our European and international partners the feigned social dialogue at a time of key processes for our society and employees, processes that the USSCG has supported since its inception and for which it believes there is no alternative," the letter states.
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