Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic said that her Cabinet is firmly committed to increasing the lowest wage. “The time has come to increase the lowest wage in Republika Srpska. We will negotiate this issue with employers and the Federation of Labour,” Cvijanovic told reporters.She said that the labour law in Republika Srpska is better than the labour legislation in the countries of the region.
“It was our intention to debate this law in Parliament for three to four days. We used solutions from labour legislation of the countries of the region, trying to avoid some restrictive solutions that exist in the FBiH labour law,” Cvijanovic added.
She noted that a balanced labour law has been drafted which will neither jeopardise anyone nor will particularly favour anyone.
“I support the right to protests and everyone has the right to organise them. However, no one has the right to forcibly enter institutions and disturb their work, since they are important for the future of Republika Srpska,” Cvijanovic said and added that she does not intend to file criminal charges.
She called upon the Employers’ Association and the Republika Srpska Federation of Labour to start talks as soon as possible with the Republika Srpska Cabinet about the scope of labour rights that should be defined in collective agreements.
“This is an obligation from the labour law which we adopted. As soon as the law enters into force, the talks should start, which will help workers to protect their rights,” Cvijanovic said.
Cvijanovic says that she understands the need of the business community to have uniform conditions for doing business throughout BiH.
She said that the Cabinet wanted the Federation of Labour to help draft a labour law.
“But, we were in a situation to act like unions in talks with employers. This was an unpleasant situation and this is why workers’ rights are here protected better than in the FBiH,” Cvijanovic said and added that the IMF will like the FBiH labour law more than the labour law in Republika Srpska.
She said that the Republika Srpska labour law is very similar to the labour law in Serbia.
“Unlike the FBiH, we kept the payment of the past service, the right to paid vacation, temporary employment contracts are here for the period of 24 months and in the FBiH for the period of 36 months, which enables our workers to get full-time permanent employment contracts sooner, and work breaks are also paid,” Cvijanovic said.
The Republika Srpska Parliament adopted a labour law early this morning.
Source: SRNA
