The value of the wage cofficient remains secret, these are the three options being discussed

The law, adopted in December last year, has not included the value of the coefytor, which sets a ceiling to where a state employee can be paid.

As such, the Law has already been decreed by Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, and published in the Official Gazette.

Kosovo Government spokesman Progress Kryeziu tells Radio Free Europe that the money value of the cofficiator will be established this month, but does not elaborate on how much it can be.

Under the Law on the 2023 budget, adopted as well in December last year, the total budget for public sector salaries will be 745m euros.

Currently, the average gross salary in Kosovo is about 480 euros per month.

Free Europe Radio has learned from sources within Kosovo institutions that the disputed monetary values of the coefytor are 100 euros, 120 euros and 130 euros. The set amount would then be multiplied by the level of the cofficient ranging from 2 to 18 ) and producing the value of wages.

Representatives of workers criticise the Government for failing to publish the value of the cofficiency and its non-involvement in the law.

“We are pending, we hope that [coeffition] will not be lower than 120 euros”, Free Europe Undeterred Jasharaj, chairman of the United Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture (SBASHK), tells Radio of Free Europe.

With this value of the cofficient, he says, salaries in the education sector would increase.

For example, teachers in low middle education have a level of 5.6. Their salary is 530 euros, at the monetary value of the coefytor 120 euros, it would rise to 662 euros.

Gashi: 120 euros has the prime minister told us

Public Administration Workers' Union Chairman Ali Gashi says this organisation has demanded that the corporate monetary value be 130 euros, but that it has not received guarantees.

In a meeting with Prime Minister [Albin Kurti], I have asked what the value of the cofficiency will be, and it has told me approximately 120 euros. If a value of undignified cofficiency is found, then we have been deceived by the government”, Gashi says.

The preliminary law for the salaries of civil servants, who have since been abolished, has had the monetary value of the cofficiency of 239 euros for the first year of implementation of this law.

This law was adopted in February 2019, but, a month before its implementation began in January 2020, the ombudsman institution has sent it to the Constitutional Court for, as it has said, “the assessment of its compliance” with the Constitution of Kosovo.

Even for the current Law on Salaries, the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), on January 6th, has filed with the ombudsman for the start of investigations for, as it has said, human rights violations.

The IKD, in this request, has estimated that the Law violates the legal security of public sector employees, not determining the currency's monetary value.

The IKD, as well, has said it has found that the Law in question contains certain provisions, which present inequitable treatment of public sector officials this, according to the IKD, poses violations of Article 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo.

The ombudsman's institution confirmed that it has accepted this request and said it will review “within the legal deadline”, which is 30 days.

Report of cofficiency 2:18

Under the new Law on Salaries, the level of cofficients is brought from 2 to 18 degrees higher only to the president of the state. The lowest, meanwhile, belongs to positions such as the Kosovo Security Force's recruit/cadett, the police cadets, customs cadets and the correctional cadets.

A worker's salary will be calculated by multiplying the level of a position's salary coffient with the monetary value of the cofficient.

The wage law applies to public sector employees whose salaries are financed from the state budget, except the workers of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI).

The number of employees who receive salaries from Kosovo's budget is about 83,000.

Kosovo's Assembly has also adopted the first reading bill that would pave the way for growth of the minimum wage, but from June of last year when this happened there was no other development.

The minimum wage in Kosovo is currently 130 to 170 euros. This value, unchanged since 2011, is the lowest in Europe, according to the European Statistics Agency, Eurostat.