Agreement signed to end Serbian Post Office strike

Tanjug/Milica Nikolić

An agreement to end the Post Office strike was signed on Friday by representatives of the strikers, management and Serbian government.

Spokesman for the Post Office staff Vladimir Djokic said that the employees with the lowest wages will get a raise of 16-17 percent while those with higher wages will get 6-7 percent raises. Under the agreement, the Post Office employees whose salaries were lowered under a 2014 regulation to cut wages in state-controlled companies would have their original salaries restored which means that the staff with low incomes would get an actual raise of some 20 percent. Djokic said that none of the strikers would be suspended. 

The deal to end the strike was negotiated with the Serbian government overnight but the deal met with the anger of strikers, N1 was told by strike spokesman Stefan Mitrovic.  

The group of Post Office staff agreed to end the strike which began on December 2 on condition that the suspensions and other disciplinary measures are revoked. Under the deal which was struck late on the night of Thursday-Friday, the staff with the lowest salaries would get the biggest pay raise but the percentages would be decided at a later date. Acting Post Office CEO Mira Petrovic took part in the negotiations for the first time.  

Mitrovic said that some of the strikers were dissatisfied with the deal and accused the negotiators of secretly making the deal while creating the impression that the whole thing was started over one or two thousand Dinars (1 Euro – 118 Dinars).  

“The post office employees who took part in the negotiations last night agreed to some increase in salaries, betraying most of the others who took part in the strike not only because of low wages but also because of the situation in the company,” Mitrovic said, adding that nothing has been changed by the deal and that the management have been left in their posts.  

The Post Office staff who went on strike demanded higher pay to equal the national average but also protested against political appointments in the management and claimed that a number of public figures were on the payroll for no reason.