Report on the activities of CCM between two meetings of RTUC "Solidarnost" (April 2013 - February 2014)

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03/072014

On 27 and 28 February, 2014 in Terme Tuhelj, Tuheljske Toplice a meeting of the Regional Trade Union Council "Solidarity" was held. The meeting was attended by the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia and Trade Unions from the region, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Slovenia. In the frameworks of this meeting a special program for young trade unionists was also presented.

On the meeting the countries from the region have presented the changes in the work and social legislation in the period between the two meetings of RTUC "Solidarnost" from April 2013 to February 2014.
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia presented information on the given legal protection, latest changes to labor legislation, and national action plan for youth employment in 2015 from which the latest measures for youth employment years have aroused.

In addition we present the original texts explained by CCM on the meeting of RTUC “Solidarnost”:

Legal protection by the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia

The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia in accordance with its statutory provisions provides free legal protection of labor rights of its members.
During 2013 the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia has recorded 3633 complaints on labor rights protection, as compared to 2012, with an increase of 844.
Number of complaints on separate legal bases
Most based on:

  • overdue salaries, benefits and allowances - total 2119,
  • dismissal of business reasons- 689,
  • rights in bankruptcy proceedings- 200,
  • trade union rights- 171,
  • changed employment contracts-153 and
  • overtime work - 124.

Actions taken

  • given advice- 1596
  • Prepared opinions -267
  • Prepared claims - 611
  • Complaints - 565
  • Claims -99
  • Hearings- 347
  • Positive verdicts- 360
  • Agreements- 58
  • Appeals- 286
  • Proposals of proceedings- 147
  • Bankruptcy proceedings- 323 - allocated 1.623.960,00 MKD

If all these listed legal actions workers would have taken private, through lawyers, more than 17.841.094,00 MKD would be required to be allocated.

Labor Law

During 2013 four changes to the Labor Law have been made. Amendments published in: Official Gazette No. 13, Official Gazette No. 25, Official Gazette No. 170 and Official Gazette No. 187.
Amendments to the fundamental Law on labor rights of workers have been made through social dialogue and participation of social partners in the Economic and Social Council.
1. Amendments to the law published in the Official Gazette No. 13 have been made with a direct initiative from CCM and aimed to ensure full protection of workers against discrimination based on pregnancy, birth and parenthood.
CCM advocates for a complete prohibition of all types and forms of discrimination due to pregnancy, birth and parenting with regard to employment access, working conditions, labor rights and cancellation of employment contract of workers who are in a state of pregnancy or using rights arising from childbirth and parenting.
Opting for regulation of these provisions in the Labor Law CCM takes direct measures and activities to implement Maternity Protection Convention, which was also ratified in the Republic of Macedonia upon initiative and request of CCM.
2. The amendment of the Labor Law published in Official Gazette No. 25 is aimed at clarification of certain provisions from the law due to inconsistency of such provisions that caused different legal practice in their application.

  • In this respect changes in the provision governing public posts i.e. with the amendment the employer is obliged in addition to other special conditions to indicate the beginning and end of daily and weekly working hours, the schedule of hours and the amount of the salary for the position for which the employee is required. This amendment supported by CCM will provide greater security and protection of workers’ rights who in this way will be transparent and fully informed about the basic working conditions as well as the most significant right of employment - the amount of the basic salary.
  • with the amendments to the Labor Law a provision that provides workers protection from abuse or manipulation in mutual consent of employment contracts termination has been regulated, so in that direction with these changes to the law the treaty for termination of employment should contain a signature with full name and surname of the employee and written date of termination of employment by the employee.
  • Opting for this change in the law CCM deems that in this way a direct care of the workers in practice will be provided regarding the current trend of blank contractual dismissals.
  • The amendments to the Law introduced a requirement for employers to accurately indicate the beginning and end of working time arrangements for part- time contracts and for the part- time contracts to inform the State Labor Inspectorate once a month.
  • An obligation for the employer to notify in advance the State Labor Inspectorate for each overtime work has been introduced.
  • Amendments to the law stipulate precisely the rights and thus provide greater protection and safety of seasonal workers.
  • Particularly significant are changes to the law that provide protection to unregistered workers. These amendments envisaged more powers of labor inspectors in protecting irregular workers in order to motivate employers to make employment contracts with workers and to report the funds for compulsory social insurance. Notably with the legislative changes it is envisaged the labor inspector when countering unregistered workers to oblige the employer to make an employment contract of indefinite period of time of the unregistered workers and in the next three months the employer not to reduce the number of employees. Also the inspector may punish the employer, initiate infringement proceedings under provided conditions or to adopt a ban on work in the current premises for a period of 30 days. Especially important is that the law provides that during the ban employers are obliged to paid compensation to these workers in amount of 70 % of the salary and benefits and during the ban the employer must not reduce the number of employees.

3. The amendments published in the Official Gazette No. 170/2013 have been adopted in a direction of precise regulation of periods of obsolescence of initiating and conducting a procedure for determining dismissal liability of employment contract due to employees fault.

In connection with the initial proposal to increase the limitation periods for the dismissal of workers, the position of CCM was that a too long period of expiration and no distinction has been made regarding the invalidity of dismissal for personal reasons and for reasons of fault.

Upon the request of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia regarding the proposal of the Government a meeting of the Economic - Social Council was held and the trade union proposal of limitation of dismissal due to personal reasons has not changed and the amendments regulated the limitation period for dismissal by workers fault. Also at the request of the unions also in this case for dismissal on grounds of fault of workers the terms originally proposed by the government have been reduced.

4. The amendment published in the Official Gazette No. 187 introduces a provision No. 170-a which regulates the right to unpaid parental leave of up to 3 months for up to three years of age of the child at least in 3 parts due to a child care.

In many European countries in addition to the paid leave for pregnancy, childbirth and parenting a right to parental leave for child care and spending some time with the child during its development to a certain age has been regulated.

Parental leave should not be confused with the right of a birth and motherhood which is mandatory and paid. Setting a parental leave of absence after completion of the pregnancy leave, birth and parenting is an additional right that stipulates participation in the care of the child until a certain age.

Law on Public Employees (Official Gazette No. 27/2014) and the Law on Administrative Officers (Official Gazette No. 27/2014)

  • Activities of trade unions affiliated to CCM regarding these laws

According to the conclusion of the Presidency of CCM on the 35th Session held on 12.23.2013, the President of CCM, PhD Zivko Mitrevski scheduled a meeting with the Minister of Information Society and Administration on which all presidents of affiliated trade unions in the public sector in CCM have been invited. Reg. No. 0703 - 6/1 of 01.02.2014.

On the meeting held in the premises of the Ministry of Information Society and Administration by the Presidents of TUs affiliated in CCM the Draft Law for public sector employees and the Draft Law on administrative officers have been elaborated and was agreed Trade Unions to submit in written suggestions and proposals to the Ministry of Information Society and Administration. The meeting was not attended by the President of UPOZ, Peco Gruevski and President of SRSVM, Mico Stojanovski although they had been invited and also upon all requests submitted by CCM to UPOZ and SRSVM to be present on the sessions (meetings), the President of UPOZ was addressing CCM in written and had not accepted participation in meetings and submission of proposals and remarks; President of SRSVM had not submitted any response.

In connection with the agreement of the meeting held on 02.01.2014 a Notice and a Request for comments on the Draft Law on public sector employees and the Draft Law on administrative officers, Reg. No. 03 - 06/ 8 of 01.03.2014 had been submitted. The same is distributed to all affiliated unions in the public sector in CCM which requested written comments regarding the draft legislation to be submitted by 08.01.2014 to the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia and the Ministry of Information Society and Administration. After this notification and request for comments suggestions and remarks to CCM and MISA the following TUs had submitted: Trade Union of Forestry Wood Industry and Energy of the Republic of Macedonia No. 03-00 of 08.01.2014, the Independent Trade Union of Health, Pharmacy and Social Care of Republic of Macedonia No. 0301-6/1 from 09.01.2014, the Macedonian Police Union No. 0302-004 of 03.01.2014, the Trade union of the workers in Catering, Tourism, Communal and Housing Economy, Handicraft and Protecting Associations of Macedonia, No. 0306-1 from 08.01.2014 and the Trade Union of Defense and Security, No. 0306-8/10 of 01/08/2014.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia submitted a Notice of the meeting in MISA regarding TU proposals on the Draft Laws to the Unions affiliated in CCM, Notice No. 0306-8/11 from 01.08.2014 to continue with the negotiations between MISA on 10.01.2014 and as agreed at this meeting of 11.01.2014 separate meetings held in MISA had representatives from MPS, SOB and SUTKOZ, while the Independent Trade Union of Health, Pharmacy and Social Care of Macedonia on 13.01.2014.

Based on the written proposal and discussions on the meetings between CCM and the unions in the public sector affiliated in CCM with the Ministry of Information Society and Administration, the Minister of Information Society and Administration has accepted a larger number of the proposals for the amendments to the Draft Laws.

A key consent on the provisions of the proposed legislation has been reached in order to be clarified and further regulated in the collective agreements. Additionally, regarding the evaluation of administrative officials for greater transparency of the procedure, a committee has been formed that will conducted the assessment and which includes the administrative officer, a representative of labor organizations in those institutions where unions are established. Also it was agreed the representative of labor organizations in those institutions where unions are established to participate in the committees that implement disciplinary procedures and offenses.

"The proposal of trade unions to reduce participation of the superior in the assessment of 75 to 65 % has been adopted and thus to increase the participation of colleagues, associates, clients or administrative officers which would reduce the subjectivity of the assessment".

An agreement about the way of rewarding the performance of administrative officials has been reached who will receive a bonus in amount of "last paid salary" which exceeds the possibility of subjectivity in determining the amount of the award since the primary solution envisioned a bonus "to a salary".

"Also further concessions were made regarding the amount and duration of the reduction in salary for poor performance. The percentage of salary for officers who partially met their working responsibilities from 30 % decreases to 20 % and for the lowest evaluated officials from 20 % to 10 %. At the same time the duration of the period during which the salary is reduced from one year is shortened to six months. For all the accepted suggestions and objections a joint press conference of CCM, KSS and MISA was held on which agreed amendments of the draft laws have been elaborated.

Conventions and Recommendations

CCM continues with its practice of raising initiatives through the Economic and Social Council to ratify relevant international conventions and in that direction upon trade union request the following conventions have been ratified: Convention on Labor Relations (Public Service) No. 151; Recommendation on Labor Relations (Public Service) No. 159; Convention on Collective Bargaining No. 154.
This is one of the most important activities of the union in the European integration processes of the state and CCM will continue with this activity in future.

Collective bargaining

GCA

Based on the continuous monitoring of the implementation of the General Collective Agreement for the private sector of the economy in practice its signatories, CCM and ORM during this year had launched an initiative for its amendment.

An argumentative and constructive dialogue on both sides have been led in order to align positions on amendments to the GCA which resulted in signing of an agreement on amendments to the GCA (Official Gazette No. 189/2013).

By signing the agreement significant results and benefits to collective bargaining, social dialogue and promotion of workers' rights have been achieved.
The most important change contained in the Agreement is that right of annual leave allowance have been regulated for workers in amount of at least 40 % of the average monthly net salary paid in RM in the last 3 months.

In the Labor Law from 2005 (Official Gazette No. 62/2005d) when determining the type of cost related compensations the annual leave allowance is not foreseen.
Until the signing of the agreement this right has not been precisely regulated which caused a loss of this right since the amount of recourse was to be determined by a collective agreement on the level of activity for workers in order to exercise this right, otherwise this right remained only on paper written and foreseen with GCA, but in practice impossible for many workers.
Practice has showed that in companies where there is no union organizing and collective bargaining workers are not able to exercise this right.

With this agreement CCM through an argumentative dialogue with employers has provided this right to all employees in the private sector of the economy, thus determining the amount of the recourse in GCA in accordance with the Labor Law which is binding for all workers and employers.

Also the agreement stipulates that on employer level the union elects or appoints representative for information and consultation and also it was determined that OHS representative is elected among employees on a meeting of the representative trade union upon trade union proposal.

In compliance with the Law on Protection against harassment at workplace, the Agreement on amendments to the GCA for the private sector of the economy stipulates: (any kind of harassment at workplace has been forbidden. The employee is entitled to protection from harassment at workplace. Cases of prohibition of psychological harassment at workplace have been regulated by law and collective agreement).

National Action Plan of Youth Employment 2015

On 17 October 2012 the Government adopted a three-year action plan to promote more and better jobs for young people aged between 15 and 29, and in the preparation of the action plan were included the social partners. National Action Plan of Employment of Youth (NAPE) focuses on:

  • boosting employment policies,
  • including programs for education,
  • training of youth in order to improve the employability and
  • social inclusion.

The plan is aligned with the National Employment Strategy of the Republic of Macedonia 2015 where youth represents special target group.

Effective policies of education and training promote opportunities for youth employment and reduce the gap in skills. NAPE, together with the National Program for Development of Education 2005 - 2015 requires harmonization of education and training needs of the labor market. Emphasis is placed on the reform of curricula for vocational education and training for including acquiring skills and work -based learning.

Furthermore, NAPE requires introduction of career education in secondary schools and improving the services of the in directing careers.
Of the Employment Agency is required establishment of an early profiling of unemployed youth in order to identify youth at risk to face more difficulties in the labor market. Government supports the programs for labor market trainings for unemployed youth and NAPE determined a goal - 60 % of these young people to be employed within six months after the training.

Funding for such programs is certainly a problem and to solve the lack of adequate funding of active labor market policies (ALMP) NAPE requires part of the income of the insurance in case of unemployment be forwarded to the funding of ALMPs aimed at youth. Although most of the above provisions are aimed at the supply side of the labor market, NAPE is taking in consideration the role of the private sector in job creation and employment of young workers. In order to promote entrepreneurship among young people middle schools will offer the entrepreneurship as an optional subject.

NAPE is aimed at expanding development programs to support businesses and business incubators (as mentioned in the Innovation Strategy 2012-2020) and further developing services that can help young entrepreneurs. One of the provisions of NAPE is increased investment in economic sectors and enterprises with major impact on youth employment by providing loans and other services for development of enterprises. NAPE also asks for extension of tax alleviations for businesses that hire new people under Article 98 of the Law on Employment and Insurance in Case of Unemployment, for businesses that employ young people in priority sectors. Labor market unit will play a key role in determining the potential growth sectors.

In this context during February 2014 through amendments to the Law on Employment and Insurance in Case of Unemployment and the Law on pension and disability insurance, employment to young people up to 29 years has been provided which means that employers in the private sector that will employ young people up to 29 years, registered as unemployed within the Employment Agency will be exempt from paying social contributions in the first year.

The measure will last for two years with possibility of extension depending on results. Target group are all young unemployed people up to 29 years. According to statistics of ESA there are 45,000 people, out of which 25,000 are actively job seekers.

The employer will be exempt from paying contributions for pension and disability insurance, health insurance and insurance in case of unemployment. The exemption will be for a period of 12 months with an obligation to keep the person to work for another year. This applies only to the base of the average wage. If the employers pay wage higher than the net average wage they will need to pay the social security contributions of the difference of the average wage paid and the salary.

Apart from the social contributions the employer will be exempt from paying personal income tax on that person, an opportunity that exists as a legal solution.

Also the three new employment measures have been foreseen that will comprise 1670 unemployed:

1. Internship program- to include young unemployed up to 29 years of age (active jobseekers) who have completed at least secondary education, through their involvement in internship programs for a period of three months. To implement this program 6,200 MKD per person per month will be paid including personal income tax and insurance in case of accidents at work and occupational disease.
For the internship program an announcement has already been published by which a support for registered unemployed up to 29 years of age will be provided in order the unemployed to acquire practical knowledge and skills.

2. Training at known employer, in order the registered unemployed to acquire a certain level of knowledge and skills at an employer who has already established certain jobs requirements. The training enables acquiring and improving the knowledge and skills of registered unemployed persons due to their easier employability.
The training will include unemployed persons with primary and secondary education and skills close to the needs of the employer. The preparation for employment lasts up to three months with an obligation of the employer to hire at least 50 % of those involved in the training and not to reduce the number of employees with full time period within 6 months. The amount of financial assistance for the unemployed, or the employee involved in the preparation equals 5,700.00 MKD per month plus reimbursement of employers cost for mentoring and trainings.

3. Training Program to meet labor market demands
The measure training at known employer comprised 7278 people and 6591 employments have been realized; the measure training for meeting the labor market demands comprised 1036 people and 491 have been employed and the measure internships comprised 1295 people out of which 759 have been employed.

For 2014 these three measures are planned to comprise 1670 people.

ILO Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities - EU FRIEDRICH EBERT STIFTUNG Организацијa на работодавачи на Македонија etuc