Private sector “discriminated against” by state aid

We do not feel that we are citizens of the Republic of Kosovo. The state is discriminating against us”, says Hysni Gashi, employed in a private sector cleaning company.

Gashi, like other employees in this sector, has not received the 50-euro assistance shared by the Kosovo Government for January, with the aim of, as it has been said, easier to deal with inflation.

The government has allocated similar aid four times since September last year, but only for public sector employees.

This is unfair. Inflation has affected us too. Tax pay is the same as I am working in the private sector, as those who receive salaries from the state budget”, Gashi tells the REL.

Kosovo has closed 2022 at an average annual inflation rate of 11.6 percent, compared to 3.1 percent in 2021.

Price increases have indeed begun since 2021, as a result of market disorders that caused the pandemic and the coronary as it continued during 2022, especially after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Gashi says that in the company where he currently works for 16 years, he is paid about 300 euros a month and that almost his entire four-member family depends on it.

It's not only the higher prices we're not facing, it's the rent, the water, the current. We're having trouble getting through. I needed not only 50 euros but also more”, he says.

Azem: Inflation Has Touched the Private Sector More

Kosovo Private Sector Workers Union Chairman Yusuf Azemi says the Government's decision to help only employees in the public sector is unfair.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe, he says the union has repeatedly asked the Government to help employees in the private sector, but that it has not received an answer.

<x0) inflation has affected the most employees in the private sector, as wages are lower. In the private sector, workers continue to be paid minimum wage. They are in difficult and discriminated against by the state”, Azem says.

The value of minimum wage in Kosovo, which ranges from 130 to 170 euros, has not changed since 2011 and is the lowest in Europe, according to the European Statistics Agency, Eurostat.

The bill that would pave the way for its growth was adopted in the first reading in June of last year, and there has been no further movement since.

Murati: Companies increase wages for workers

In September last year, when the Kosovo government has started to allocate 50-euro aid to workers in the public sector, it has also adopted a package of support for businesses that raise workers' salaries.

The government has said it would subsidise 50 per cent of the salary growth for workers maximum 100 euros for the first three months.

But for now, there is no record of how many private sector workers may have benefited from this package.

Kosovo Finance, Pumma and Transfers Minister Iron Murati said at a news conference on January 27th that workers in the public sector have been offered assistance because employers have the state.

In view of this, workers in the private sector should also be assisted by the employer.

“I have called for employers to increase [the workers'] salaries, because there is a possibility and we will support anyone who raises salaries”, Murati said.

The chairman of the Kosovo Economic Ode, Lulzim Rafuna, has earlier told Radio Free Europe that there have been salary movements in the private sector, according to the opportunities companies have had.

“Someone more and less. But, the government has had to help the private sector increase wages by the inflation rate”, Rafuna has said.

In Kosovo, the biggest employer is the private sector, with more than 220 thousand employed. The average gross salary in this sector is around 380 euros.

Over 80 thousand people in the public sector are employed, with an average salary of about 620 euros.

In recent months, the private sector has been constantly faced with job shortages, and many of the complaints they reported at the Labour Inspectorate have been dealing with low, long-term work hours, denial of annual and other layoffs.