The non-governmental association Educational Union of Montenegro sent a request to the authorities to amend the law on wages in the public sector as soon as possible, because, in their opinion, the concept of wage uniformity has been deviated from.
They are asking the Government and the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare to adopt their proposal on increasing the coefficient for teachers employed in schools and kindergartens at 12.56:XNUMX p.m.
If these demands are not met, they said that they will call on their colleagues to suspend "all work obligations that do not fall within the minimum of the work process, and were imposed on us by the Law on Strikes". They also announced that, as a last resort, they would organize protests if the authorities ignored their demands.
From the Educational Community, they addressed the Prime Minister, the President of the Assembly and members of parliament, the Minister of Finance and Social Welfare, as well as the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.
"NVU Educational Association of Montenegro, an association that gathers practicing teachers, addresses you with this open letter because for decades our profession has been degraded, and despite the change of government, we continue to experience being ignored and disrespected every day, as if the importance of education for the progress of a country has been forgotten. For these reasons , the aforementioned association launched a petition entitled "Increase the starting coefficient for teachers' salaries in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. The coefficient 12.56 is our goal!". An electronic petition was launched where citizens have the opportunity to support the teacher's request. At the same time, a petition was sent and to the addresses of all kindergartens and schools in Montenegro, thus enabling teachers to support the request. The petition will last until December 30, and in one week a total of over 7 signatures have already been received. This number of petition signatories clearly shows how dissatisfied teachers are with the long-standing bad status in society and how much citizens are aware of that bad status," the announcement states.
As the reason why they react, they state:
"If the proposal were to increase the salary of teachers in schools and kindergartens by an average of 17%, the coefficient would remain the same (7.67), and the salaries would be significantly lower compared to the work we do in non-conditional schools, without means of work, where we come from rented apartments (or burdened with unfavorable housing loans), paying for transportation, teaching materials, office supplies, computer equipment, internet, winter room... which is not the case with other professions. With the advent of the scourge of Covid-19, you all know that our work is additionally complicated. We worked beyond the norm, which we have not been paid to date, and we had difficulty working in the conditions of online learning. Currently, the duration of our classes has been shortened by one third, while we need to implement 100% of the program, which creates additional stress."
The Education Union states that their salaries have been, and that with the "Europe Now" project, they would remain at the level of salaries of employees with secondary education in other professions, which are also activities in the domain of public administration.
"Not to mention that teachers' salaries in Montenegro are the lowest in Europe. In addition to our salaries being lower than those of employees in health and the Ministry of the Interior, our salaries are currently on average EUR 100 less than those of public administration employees who work in the administration and of which over 15 were employed in the computer era (about 3 more than educators). In this way, the principle of salary uniformity in the public sector is violated. We believe that this is degrading for our profession and we refer to the Law on Salaries of Employees in to the public sector: "Article 5: Determining the wages of employees is based on the principles of: 1) uniformity of wages in the public sector for work in the same or similar jobs and jobs that require the same level or sub-level of qualifications."
The association states that they are "especially hurt" by the behavior of the deputies in the Assembly who, as they judge, "completely ignored our importance, who do not find it necessary to fight for our interest, for our better status, and thus the welfare of the whole society."
"On the contrary, the most recent request that we could hear in the Assembly is that "next year the coefficients on the salaries of employed constitutional court advisers and secretaries of permanent working bodies (committees) in the parliament should be increased from 10,38 to 13,83". If this were to be adopted proposal, these two categories of employees would have an additional higher salary in addition to the increase foreseen by the project "Europe now!" (average 17%). We wonder if this someone systematically wants to destroy and collapse the state system by degrading education and the very reputation of teachers for decades," the announcement states.
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