Bar: "Saved" salaries by increasing allowances

The Municipality of Bar has amended the Decision on the Salaries of Local Officials, Persons Appointed by the Municipal Assembly, and Local Civil Servants and Employees in Local Government Bodies and Services, by increasing the percentage of the basic salary supplement for some workers in local services.

For the category of employees who work overtime and night work, who are mainly employed in the Protection and Rescue Service and the Municipal Police and Inspection, the percentage has been increased by 15 and 20 percent, respectively.

Employees of the Protection and Rescue Service in the positions of advisor, shift leader, and firefighter-rescuer will be able to receive this salary supplement of up to 30 percent.

Employees in the Secretariat for Finance in the Department for Determination, Control and Collection of Local Public Revenues and in the Department of Legal Affairs for Local Public Revenues, in jobs in the category of expert-managerial staff, sector manager, chief inspector, will be able to receive these salaries in a percentage of up to 18 percent, as well as in jobs performed by expert staff.

In the Municipal Police and Inspection Service, positions in the expert management category, head of the inspection department, and coordinating inspector will receive a percentage of up to 13 percent, while expert staff (inspectors from three ranks) will enjoy an increase in this coefficient of up to 18 percent.

Executive staff of the Municipal Police and Inspection, or municipal inspectors, will be able to receive a salary supplement of up to 25 percent.

For employees in the Chief Administrator's Service, working in the expert staff category, i.e. independent advisor and manager of the second-instance administrative procedure, the percentage of the calculated salary supplement will now be 18 percent.

Secretary of the Secretariat for Local Self-Government in the Municipality of Bar Svetlana Gažević, presenting the decision, said that inflationary trends in the country are visible, as is the decline in the state standard, which is reflected in employees and their salaries.

Since the calculation of salaries will be centralized, as she stated, it was necessary to find a model according to which the existing salaries of employees would be mostly maintained in the amounts they have had so far, according to the current decision and calculation model.

The working team reviewed legal options and determined that this could be done by proposing an increase in the basic salary supplement that already exists for employees' salaries.

The law stipulates that this allowance can range up to 30 percent, but the working team for those making this decision decided that allowances for expert and executive staff and employees should be increased by three percent.

"These are supplements that are in accordance with the law and which, in principle, will ensure that the salaries of employees in local government bodies and services are not reduced, but are maintained at the current level," said Gažević.

This decision does not include officials and senior management, and Gažević estimated that the new coefficients for calculating the basic salary supplement will be applied to about 200 employees in local administration and services operating under the auspices of the Municipality of Bar.