Kosovo Public Sector Unions Oppose Proposed Pay Grades

Amid an ongoing debate in Kosovo over the pay of the Prime Minister, which Ramush Haradinaj has doubled, the government is meeting union discontent over a new Law on Levelling Salaries.

Civil servants' unions have already said they do not accept the draft. Blerim Syla, head of the Healthcare Trade Union Federation, told BIRN that they presented their own demands on Friday and during this week, and objected to the proposals to be discussed in government.  

"This existing tabulation is unacceptable," he stated. "It is unjustified that a medical specialist should have a lower coefficient than a driver in some institution - or lower than a mayor who might have studied less," he explained.

"We have sent our recommendations with concrete proposals that have to do with the importance of the profession," he said.

Public sector unions have meanwhile told the Kosovo government they will go on strike if their demands for higher pay are not met.

Kosovo's Constitutional Court ruled on June 11 that Prime Minister Haradinaj's decision to increase the salaries of cabinet members, judges and prosecutors - and double his own salary - did not break the law.

Ymer Ymeri, deputy head of the Union of Educational, Culture and Science Workers, SBASHK, told BIRN they had also presented their demands on pay to the Minister of Public Administration, Mahir Yagcilar, who is in charge of drafting the law. "We have seen the draft and we have objections," he told BIRN.

"We objected especially to the tabulation whereby educational employees are categorised alongside nurses," Ymeri said.

Ymeri said SBASHK wanted employees graded in terms of pay according to their level of studies and the institutions where they work.

Asllan Rusinovci, from the...