Trade Union: Vucic Prevents Social Dialogue, Unions Place Hope in Students

Dusko Vukovic photo: private archive

The vice-president of the Alliance of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia, Dusko Vukovic, stated on May 29 that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was preventing social dialogue and exerting pressure on all who participate in the negotiations on setting the minimum wage for 2026.

Vukovic said in an interview to BETA that the minimum wage was decided on by the Socio-Economic Council, i.e. representatives of the trade unions, employers and the Serbian government – not by the country’s president. “I view the recent statement of President Vucic about the minimum wage in 2026 being EUR550 as the ‘déjà vu’ practice, which was interrupted for a brief period last year and which is, to put it mildly, inappropriate for several reasons. First, this prevents true social dialogue and, at the same time, puts pressure on all the legally defined participants in such negotiations, preventing them from reaching an agreement autonomously,” Vukovic stated.

Second, there arises quite a logical question – why does the president nominates the minimum wage in euros if we have our own currency, in which salaries are paid and living expenses expressed?

“Third, the increase of the minimum wage expressed in euros, and not dinars, creates an illusion that our living standard is increasing, when realistically it is at the same unsatisfactory level, with obvious increases of retail prices, rising living costs, permanent hikes of utility prices, of fuel, agricultural produce and everything else. It is obvious that elections are in the works and that it wouldn’t hurt to make some easy campaign promises, which we have had an earful and quite enough of in the past few years,” Vukovic said.