Civil servants disgruntled by the new wage law: We're being discriminated against.

According to this law, about 70 percent of public sector workers are expected to receive increased wages by December.

Kosovo Civil Service Union Chairman Mursel Zymber told Radio Free Europe, that civil servants feel discriminated against and are not treated equally as far as pay is concerned.

He said that with the new Law on Salaries, civil servants remain in the very low cofficiency, respectively. It requires that civil servants be accommodated on the basis of their work contributions and positions of employment.

“The frustrations of civil servants have begun to express themselves, but the start of accepting salaries will manifest a huge dissatisfaction because the huge pay gap among public servants in general is known. They are disappointed because within the civil service there are many sectors that do professional work and on the basis of the Law of Professionals they will have to be paid as if the other health and education sector”, Zymber told Radio Free Europe.

The average salary of civil servants in Kosovo, according to Zymber, is 370 euros per month, while with the new law, some of the civil servants pay could receive an increase of 40 euros per month.

This union, even prior to the signing of the Law for Salaries, on February 2nd of this year, has held several strikes, while calling on Kosovo President Hashim Thaci not to ratify the Law for Salaries.

Zymberi shows that the union had also filed an official complaint about the Law on Pays to the ombudsman institution in Kosovo.

In addition to the Civil Service Union, the Ombudsman in Kosovo, has so far received 17 other complaints regarding the Law on Salaries in the public sector, which include not only unions, but also groups of different complainers who consider the Law on Salaries negatively affects their interests.

This has been confirmed for Radio Free Europe, the Ombudsman, Hilmi Jashari, saying the “anks presented to the ombudsman are different, depending on the position and institutions that have filed complaints, through which frustrations arise regarding their definitions and involvement in the Law for wages in the public sector”, Jashar said.

Mursel Zymberi, meanwhile, says the discriminatory treatment of state institutions against civil servants will affect the work of other sectors.

This treatment that the state service institutions have made will certainly not be at the level of office. If we don't have civil service at the level of duty, we can't say that we have a real state because neither the courts, the police, the prosecution, nor the health can function without a literal organisation”, he said.

The “Peges here will happen because it has already started to be promoted by the courts that their salaries will amount to 2,000 thousand euros, while the official for social services, who gives reports and professional opinions, will have 400 euros' wages. This will not happen, this will not be allowed and certainly not allowed”, Zymber said. However, in the Ministry of Finance, its officials have confirmed to Radio Free Europe that the Law on Salaries will be implemented by December, and that the salaries of the categories involved will come up with increases from December.

The number of workers receiving salaries from Kosovo's budget is about 82 thousand. The average public sector salary, according to the recent data of the Kosovo Statistics Agency, in 2018 was 573 euros.

Under the new law, the lowest monthly salary is the home-of-two euros, 621 euros is the salary of high school teachers, university professor will receive 1505 euros, chief prosecutor 1 912 euros, Prime Minister 2151 and Kosovo's president from December will receive the monthly salary worth 2390 euros.

Thus, basic wages are presented and no additional compensations, such as overtime or risk.

Under the new law, the basic salary is that part of the salary, which benefits the full-time work of a certain function or position. The value of a basic salary is calculated by multiplying the pay class's cofficient at the monetary value of the coeficent. The ratio of cofficients is one with ten (1:10), distributed at sixty-nine (69) levels of cofficients.

The highest challenger is 10, which is held only by the president of the Republic of Kosovo, then is the 9th level, attended by the Speaker of the Parliament, the prime minister and president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo.

Various positions of civil servants between 1.85 and 2.25 are of various kinds, between 2.5 and 5 are included from nurses to medical professionals.

In the meantime, down from 1.7 to 2.5 positions are representatives of the education system, along with garden educators to high school principals. / REL/