The Aftermath of Disobedience to Constitution

Since August last year, the Kosovo Assembly has not complied with the Constitutional decision to make changes to the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector, with the goal of restoring the additions to work experience that were halved.

Gzim Shala, a researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice, said the right that the Constitution has recognised, thousands of public sector employees have sought through the courts.

“I have over two thousand lawsuits filed in the court so far and procedural spending to a considerable extent just because they have been created. What had to happen in the concrete case is for the Kosovo Assembly to stop creating further unnecessary procedure spending. That's also why it's necessary that the Parliament has to sort this out as soon as possible and that among the first post-constitution jobs, it's also necessary to address this issue in the Law on the Salat in the Public Sector”, Shala said about Time.net, broadcast Periscope.

The Law on Salaries in the Public Sector reduced the additional percentage of work experience from 0.5 percent to 0.5 percent each of the first 15 years of work. On February 1, 2024, the Court found that this decrease is contrary to the Constitution and imposed the Convention on August 1, 2024 to change the provision, turning the additional percentage to at least 0.5 percent.

But about 15 months after the act was entered into force and 9 months after the constitutional deadline for implementation of the law, the Parliament has not taken any action and is currently without legislative power since it is not constitutionalised.

Shala says that if it doesn't quickly build up, the state budget could be damaged for tens of millions of euros, the cost stemming from procedure spending in courts.

The Vjollca Shala, deputy head of the United Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture, said that each educator, since the law's entry into force, has been damaged about 600 euros.

It's been required since February 5th, 2024, retroactively those who have up to 15 years of experience. So it has damaged the workers of education, science and culture with almost one salary for this period that has not been paid”, Shala said.

Shala has stressed that an estimated 35 thousand education workers have access to some 60 thousand active indictments in courts, mainly with claims related to the collective contract. She said there is an opportunity to add another 30,000 lawsuits by teaching, to the realisation of the law on wages. /Periscope/