From zero dinars, over a paltry few thousand, and up to 50 percent reduced salary - that's how it went payment of the first part of the February salary of striking teachers March 6.
Educators who are struggling to improve their position and meet student demands today (March 21) should receive the second part of their earnings for the second month of 2025.
After numerous threats from the entire political state corps, from the president of the state, through the resigned prime minister and the president of Skuopština, that teachers who do not work will not even be paid, the second part will cement the government's decision - whether it finally and irrevocably punishes the strike.
Lawsuits follow.
The Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia submitted criminal charges for reduced wages against those in charge of finances in school administrations and the Minister of Education Slavica Đukić Dejanović, and new legal steps are being announced - lawsuits for damages.
Lawsuits will be filed if the state does not correct its decision on March 21 and pay the teachers with the second part of their salary what was denied to them in the first part. Educators have been on legal strike since September 2024, during which period they received their full salary. Now the Ministry has decided to reduce the wages of workers according to criteria that do not exist in the Law on Strike, because it is an outdated legal solution from 1996. According to this Law, educators do not have the right to completely suspend classes, but can only shorten classes to 30 minutes. The state should therefore initiate disciplinary proceedings against them, and not reduce their salary at its own discretion.
School principals can also expect potential lawsuits, because lawyers believe that many of them have acted contrary to the Law on the Basics of the Education System, which regulates the authority and responsibility of institution principals. The directors would be sued because they were aware that they had implemented the minister's illegal decision.
