TEACHERS’ PROTEST ON MARCH 12

Members of the Teachers’ Trade Union of Serbia, Teachers’ Trade Union of Serbia ‘Nezavisnost’ and the Trade Union of Education Workers of Serbia announced a protest on Saturday, March 12, at Nikola Pašić Square in Belgrade.
They informed the Minister of Education, Branko Ružić, about it and invited him to come to the protest in order to get acquainted with the problems of educators related to their social position.
The protest is organized under the slogan “Neither justice – nor money”, and members of three representative teachers’ unions want to point out to the catastrophic financial situation of employees in education, says Valentina Ilić, President of the Teachers’ Trade Union of Serbia.
‘Our demands are that employees in education should receive a 15% salary increase by the end of the year, solidarity aid be paid to us, vacation bonus and a hot meal be regulated.’
For the last two and a half years, educators have been suffering due to the pandemic. They were additionally burdened and they were not rewarded for that.
In January inflation was 8.7%, which means that the pay rise of 7% didn’t really affect us.
‘The average salary in education is below the national average’, states Ilić, some of the reasons that motivated educators to take to the streets.
‘We were thinking about organizing a warning strike or even a legal strike, but as they have been thanking us since the beginning of the pandemic for working responsibly, we decided to hold a protest on Saturday because a lot has been missed so far and we did not want to additionally contribute to it.
‘Besides that, we believe that a large number of colleagues will join us, since it is a non-working day,’ Ilić points out.
She notes this protest is just an introduction to the activities that the unions are planning in the upcoming period.
Another protest is announced. It will probably be the responsibility of the new government and the new Minister of Education to deal with it in August or September.