At the protest in front of the Government of Serbia, held on January 31, 2022, Trade Union of Employees in Science and Research Institutions of Serbia presented their demands. Namely, they asked for equal pay of all employees in science and all those working with fixed-term contracts to sign new ones in line with the law. Demands were submitted to the Government and the deadline for responses is February 7.
Also, trade union demands from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development to present its plan with co-efficients till November at the latest. According to this plan, starting from January 1,2023 salaries in the sector of science will be calculated and paid, which would provide for the legal principle of ‘equal pay –equal work’.
Milan Ivanov, Ph.D, senior scientific counsellor at the Institute for Medical Research, says that the next session of the trade union committee will be organized on February 8, where the representatives of all Serbian institutes will make the decision on further steps unless trade union demands have been met. He explains that scientists are faced with the violation of the Labour Law, where equal pay for equal work is guaranteed.
In science there are six different pay levels for a single work place. Trade union demands the respect of the principle equal pay – equal work, equal education level, equal pay. As the trade union was told that there weren’t enough resources for everybody to be transferred to the highest category, they accepted that scientists in three lowest categories be transferred to the category A3 which is the third in rank and to wait till 2023 when the pay would be made equal.
DECENT WORK CAMPAIGN Trade Union of Employees in Science and Research Institutions of Serbia started the campaign ‘Decent Work in Science’.
‘We want to encourage all employees in science to join us in the fight for our demands. We think that education and science are key for our country, but we can’t call upon young people to get education, choose to become scientists, stay in Serbia and found their families if working in science already lacks decency and secure conditions,’ say trade unionists.
