Trade unions "study" IMF deal

The unions need a few days to determine whether the government has betrayed their requests by signing the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Izvor: B92

Wednesday, 23.02.2011.

13:20

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The unions need a few days to determine whether the government has betrayed their requests by signing the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Alliance of Independent Unions of Serbia (SSS) President Ljubisav Orbovic has stated that the IMF said that they “do not want to interfere with the issue of wages and that it was between us and the government”. Trade unions "study" IMF deal He told B92 that the government claimed that they “will accept everything that the unions will agree with the IMF”. “We’re not negotiating with the IMF but with the government and at the moment I cannot say whether our requests have been betrayed, we need a few days to do the calculation,” Orbovic pointed out. The IMF mission and the Serbian government yesterday reached an agreement on the last review of the current stand-by arrangement which will allow Serbia to draw about EUR 356mn in order to strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The SSS president stressed that the unions were dissatisfied with the fact that the government had not consulted them about the adoption of the budget even though they had requested it. According to him, the government has given up on the “social pact” with the unions which was proposed earlier but the unions are still ready to sign such an agreement with the government. “There is an impression that employers, unions and the government are at a stalemate, it’s unknown which move should be made. We’re not getting an offer for the agreement and if it comes to a union protest, we will have to go to the end, to new elections and the new government,” Orbovic explained. He added that nobody was offering a solution for the bad situation, not the ruling coalition or the opposition. Orbovic pointed out that the salary increase was not the unions’ only request and that the public had such an impression due to some teachers’ unions “unrealistic requests”. Ljubisav Orbovic (FoNet, file)

Trade unions "study" IMF deal

He told B92 that the government claimed that they “will accept everything that the unions will agree with the IMF”.

“We’re not negotiating with the IMF but with the government and at the moment I cannot say whether our requests have been betrayed, we need a few days to do the calculation,” Orbović pointed out.

The IMF mission and the Serbian government yesterday reached an agreement on the last review of the current stand-by arrangement which will allow Serbia to draw about EUR 356mn in order to strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

The SSS president stressed that the unions were dissatisfied with the fact that the government had not consulted them about the adoption of the budget even though they had requested it.

According to him, the government has given up on the “social pact” with the unions which was proposed earlier but the unions are still ready to sign such an agreement with the government.

“There is an impression that employers, unions and the government are at a stalemate, it’s unknown which move should be made. We’re not getting an offer for the agreement and if it comes to a union protest, we will have to go to the end, to new elections and the new government,” Orbović explained.

He added that nobody was offering a solution for the bad situation, not the ruling coalition or the opposition.

Orbović pointed out that the salary increase was not the unions’ only request and that the public had such an impression due to some teachers’ unions “unrealistic requests”.

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