School classes throughout Serbia are on Monday suspended.
A large number of teachers took to the streets today in protest against the unfulfilled promises of the Government in all major cities of Serbia.
In Belgrade, part of the education workers spontaneously decided to block traffic in Nemanja Street.
When it comes to education, the Law on Strike does not recognize a complete stoppage of work, but only foresees a reduction of hours to 30 minutes. However, the president of the Belgrade School Union, Snežana Romandić Petrović, previously told "Vreme" that educators "have nothing left to lose."
Fear less and less
Aleksandar Makov from the Forum of Belgrade Grammar Schools tells "Vreme" that 12 out of 16 grammar schools are suspended, which shows that "the fear of dismissal is diminishing".
He also reminds that the Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia, which is very numerous and did not support these protests, is also on some kind of strike and that the dissatisfaction of the educational workers has never been more obvious.
"This is the beginning, another warning strike can be expected in October, and it may also happen that there is a trend towards radicalization and that classes are interrupted for a number of days." These are the announcements of the representative unions, but nothing has been concreted yet," says Markov.
Outrageous and unprofessional
The President of the Branch Union of Educators of Serbia "Nezavisnost" Srđan Slovic tells "Vreme" from Kraljevo that the response is great and that educators are very dissatisfied.
Slovic says that there is no answer from the Government, and that among teachers, the division into teaching and non-teaching staff caused particular anger.
"That's nowhere, it's not done that way and it's very unprofessional," says Slovic.
The Government's proposal was to increase the salary of teaching staff by 12 percent, and that of non-teaching staff by eight percent.
Slovic warned earlier that, in this way, that category of employees will be even more threatened and demotivated.
