Strike No Services

I've come to get a birth certificate for my wife. She's got a visa term, but I couldn't get through this service. “For me this has been tortured”, Enver Shabani from Pristina said.

The Pristina municipality's civilian servants are on the second day of the strike. They have joined the strike organised by the Union of Independent Unions of Kosovo (BSPK).

Ahmet Gashi, chairman of the Pristina municipality's Workers Union, told Radio Free Europe they are offering only some emergency service.

Emergency services that can be conducted, according to Ahmeti, are issuing documents to citizens who have set a visa term in any embassy, as well as in case of any documents required for cases of illness.

But Shaban, the document (the birth certificate for the woman), was looking for him to be attached to the visa application documentation and failed to receive the service.

Birth certificates can also be obtained electronically in the Pristina municipality, but Saban said he failed to equip himself in this form.

“Shans didn't have; inside there is no service this is a negligence. The term is set by date. I don't know how long the strike lasts, it could lose the term for a visa”, Shabani said.

Teachers in public gardens, civil servants in Kosovo's local and central institutions are also on strike.

The main demand of these workers' unions, addressed to the Government of Kosovo, is the separation of 100 euros for workers, until the salary bill goes into effect.

At the pre-school institution “smile”, in Pristina the 26 workers of this institution were at their place of employment, but did not work.

Parents have not brought their children to the garden, for as the educator Merita Jellily said, they have been informed that they will be on strike.

Let's not accept kids in the garden because we're on strike, it's not easy for us either. But that's why the government has had to think of”, Xhelili said.

Xhelili stressed that children's parents have understood the strike, as, as she said, “and they also know what low wages we work on”.

The tutors' monthly salary ranges from 320 to 420 euros, depending on their schooling.
With the new wage bill, teachers in pre-school institutions have been assigned to have the 5.2 cofficiency, meanwhile, educators five.

The public sector pay raise strike has prompted the Kosovo Government's response Thursday.

Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfers, Enis Spahiu, told Radio Free Europe that if an official is on strike for another hour, he will not be paid for that hour.

Spahiu has been summoned to Article 18 of the Law for Strikes, which says that, during the development of the strike, obligations stemming from the labour contract, including pay rights and obligation of conviction to work, are suspended.

The Law on Strikes of Kosovo says that union organisations, or half of the employees of a certain working organisation, where there is no union organisation, have the right to organise strikes, to protect their economic, social and professional interests.

Under the Law for Strikes, the interruption or departure from the labour relationship because of participation in a legal strike is illegal.

So far, the Government and the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo have failed to reach any agreement to disrupt the strike.

Free Europe Radio on Friday has failed to reach contact with any union representatives.

Ali Dragusha, former representative of labour unions, said that to get out of this situation, unions need greater commitment through social dialogue.

The social dialogue is missing that unions are fragile and unorganised”, Dragusha praised.

According to him, social dialogue through the Social Economic Council is the best form to reach an agreement, as well as to resolve a specific problem between workers and employers.

Dragusha added that the strikes could take place, but not by damaging citizens, as in the case of providing services or children in the event of teachers' strikes.

Rumbler Jasharaj from the US Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo told Radio Europe Free on Thursday, August 25th, that they will not leave the strike without meeting the requirements. He said the workers' economic situation is burdened by rising consumer prices.

According to Statistics Agency data, Kosovo is facing high inflation.

The inflation rate in July has reached 14.2 per cent, up from 0.9 per cent last July.

Price increases have started since last year, mainly because of supply disorders caused by the pandemic and the coronary. Hov, then gave them Russia's war in Ukraine, which began on February 24.