Teachers' protest, Belgrade, May 16 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)
Martin Mihailovic, a member of the presidency of the Association of Teachers’ Unions of Serbia, has said that the Association is dissatisfied with the government’s final offer of an 11-percent increase in pay for teachers starting January 2025.
The offer, he explained, is less than previously agreed upon, so his organization will be going ahead with the strike and rally planned for Nov. 1.
“In Oct. 2023, we signed an agreement with the Cabinet of the time according to which novice teachers would be issued a salary equal to the state average. Even with the currently offered increase, that salary will not reach the state average for August, let alone for January or October,” Mihailovic stated.
With regards to the authorities insisting that the strike, should the unions go ahead with it, must abide by the law, Mihailovic said that this entails a reduction of lesson duration to 30 minutes, with the provision that those teachers wanting to hold full 45-minute lessons be enabled to do so.
In an Oct. 29 meeting with the teachers’ unions, the government proposed to increase the salaries of all educators by 11 percent starting Jan. 1, 2025 and to issue a one-time payment of RSD15,000 to all primary and secondary school teachers by Jan. 9.
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