Serbian authorities withdraw decision to ban worker holidays in the north

On July 1st, workers from the health and education sector who work in the Serbian system testified to Radio Free Europe that they had received a <x0bal” verbal” that because of the political situation, they cannot take advantage of holidays until the second announcement.

All RSE conversationaries insisted on anonymity for fear of endangering their jobs.

Meanwhile, on July 5th, two employees from the health and education system confirmed they were told they could already take advantage of annual holidays. Education workers will be free to use annual holidays until August 1st and then will have to be put on the job.

The director of the Clinical Hospital Centre in northern Mitrovica, Zlatan Elek, on July 1st and 4th was not available for a declaration concerning annual holidays.

However, in a telephone conversation on July 5th, Elec has confirmed to Radio Free Europe that health system workers can use annual holidays, while the previous testimony of employees that they cannot, has called it “Dezination”.

The whole situation over the ban on annual holidays followed the Kosovo Government's June 29th decision to Serbia on implementing reciprocal measures in terms of personal documents, as well as the decision to reregister city signs cars in Kosovo issued by Serbian authorities at the RKS (Kosovo Republic).

Those plates that were used mainly in northern Kosovo, official Pristina considered them illegal for years but tolerated them until last year.

The State Council of Serbia has reacted sharply to this Kosovo decision. Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq has said he will not allow persecution of Serbs and “Storm”

Meanwhile, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has called on all members of the Serb community who replace illegal license plates with RKS” on July 3rd.

He also underlined some facilities during the reregistering process, such as free customs registration and technical control.

This has been responded to by the director of the Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government, Petar Petkovovic, with the message that “this provocation and attempting to seize Serbian cars will not exceed”.

Workers of Serbian institutions often had a job duty to come out of protest because of the political situation, or at the barricades, even in the Kosovo elections, when they had to support the Serbian List, the main Serbian political party in Kosovo.

The Serbian list was formed with Belgrade's support in 2013 and has since participated in all local and central Kosovo institutions, while almost eliminated other opposition parties.

A large number of Serbs in Kosovo are employed in Serbian institutions, whether their existence depends on the salaries Belgrade provides.

From Serbia's 2021 budget, about 91.8m euros have been earmarked for Kosovo, and most of that amount -- around 67.7m euros -- goes to the Office for Kosovo.