Reduced number of ministries, civil staff in panic

The reduction of the number of ministries, from 21 to the past Government to 15 ministries, has increased the concerns of civil servants and the union representing them.

The positive side of the ministry's number cuts, according to the Government is budget savings, but the negative side of these cuts, according to employees in public administration, could be job loss for many employees.

The most concerned about this government decision, workers of the Ministry of Labour and Social Management, who are estimated to be over 800.

Radio Free Europe has visited some of this ministry's offices. But, workers have been reluctant to press the issue, without hiding concerns about their working positions during the process of joining or smelting ministries.

On behalf of the employees, the official spoke for information at the ministry, Ismail Gashi. He said the situation is unclear, as until now, no one has clarified the way workers are distributed, and for that reason, he added, they feel insecure.

The “is a vague, confusing situation for this workers are insecure. Risked are joint, non-professional services because they continue to work as they have continued until today. While joint services, such as legal offices, information offices, human resources, personnel, these fourfold to this prime minister with the new organisation, and that's a lot of problem“, Gashi told Radio Free Europe.

As a result of reducing the number of ministries, the Ministry of Labour and Social Goods, that entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Economic Development, have joined a ministry, which will be led by the minister, Roseta Hajdari.

The Diaspora Ministry has entered into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspore, while the Ministry of Public Administration has been done together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Civil sector representatives say employees are concerned with the ruling coalition's decision to reduce the number of ministries, but the most affected, according to them, are workers of the Ministry of Labour and Social Management.

Kosovo Civil Service Union Chairman Mursel Zymberi told Radio Free Europe that workers at the respective ministries are concerned about the positions or transfer of workers from one ministry to another. According to him, the government cannot in this form violates workers' rights.

“has tremendous panic, especially in sectors that are designed to melt or be transported to other ministries. Because it changes environment, country, leaders and the form of how sectors or who will be appointed leaders. To illustrate, a procurement official is transported from one ministry to another ministry, to apprehend the legal official, but there are legal officials there, so what will be the position of the carrying official. These are major concerns about what will happen to contracts, jobs, and their” positions, says Murseli.

Visar Rushtti from the organisation “Democracy Plus” tells Radio Free Europe that the functioning of ministries in this situation is possible but that time, reshuffle and integration is needed.

Rushiti says that jobs should not be endangered, but opportunities exist to reduce the position of some employees.

The subx0> actual jobs should not be endangered. What can eventually happen is that someone will have to sit down. If an official exists in both ministries with the same description of tasks and the same job titles, the second official could sit in position. It is impossible to have two of the same positions in a certain ministry, but this has nothing more to do with losing the location of”, Rushiti said.

While the civil staff's concerns remain, in a study by the Institute for Advanced Research- GAP, it has said that with the government's reduction under calculations, Kosovo's budget will save about 13m euros for a government mandate.

The number of employees in the public sector is about 82,000. The average salary in this sector, according to the latest data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, in 2018, was 573 euros.