Representative trade unions of educators on Thursday (January 9), they had another in a series of meetings with representatives of the Government of Serbia. At that meeting they were offered a five percent pay rise in March and another five percent in October. And then, in January 2026, a seven percent increase, like others in the public sector.
Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević stated that, with an 11 percent increase in January 2025, two increases in March and October, and an increase in January 2026, teachers' salaries will be increased by 31 percent in 13 months.
It's Vucevic after the meeting said that progress had been made in the preambles. Previously, he threatened the educators that those who go on strike will be fired, and that high school students who are not in the classroom will be given unjustified lessons, and he also grumbled something about the fact that high school in Serbia is not compulsory, which could be interpreted as and as a threat to students.
Was there anything different at the latest meeting compared to the previous ones?
What's new
Dobrivoje Marjanović from the Union of Educators' Union tells "Vreme" that it is.
"All the time we insisted that they honor the agreement we signed in 2023. Yesterday, they finally said one solution that will be adequate, and that is that next Thursday at the Government meeting, they will change the regulation on coefficients and that they will go to the rebalancing of the budget in March."
In March, they would give an additional five percent increase, Marjanović continues, and then from March to October salaries would be slightly below the national average.
"An additional increase in October would put us back above the national average and then in January they would get an additional seven percent increase like everyone else in the public sector."
The interlocutor of "Vremen" says that they do not sign anything with them, the Government, except for negotiations regarding a special collective agreement that "we have to finish by March, and today at 11 o'clock we have a meeting with them on that topic".
"The regulation on coefficients is the solution by which the state finally resolves the status of teachers in schools," points out Marjanović.
Deadline for decision
Information appeared in the media that the deadline for educators to make a decision after yesterday's meeting is 24 hours. That information, says our interlocutor, is not correct.
"They gave us a deadline, we said that we cannot make a statement within that deadline because we want to ask people." They told us to let them know what we think next week, and until then we will consult with them on some details. We agreed to sit down with them again next week and tell them again 'face to face' what we had decided. That's the agreement," explains Marjanović.
According to our interlocutor, the decision of the educators on further steps will be made next week, and if they agree that they are not satisfied with the proposal, then they will probably initiate actions at the beginning of the semester (January 20). What it will be, he will say in due course.
Will the teachers stop work?
Marjanović says that they conducted the survey on the suspension of classes at the moment when it was said that there would be no more negotiations with the state. They have the results of the survey, he says, and they know what people are ready for. Since there were still negotiations, he says that now these are "new moments".
"We will have meetings at the level of cities, at the level of schools, we plan to organize meetings of the main committees at the beginning of next week and talk with all unions." We will inform the government about some of our activities further on."
Whether they will start the school year or not, concludes our interlocutor, does not depend on the four or eight people who were at the negotiations, but also depends on their colleagues, what they are ready for and whether this is what they were striking for.
Ilić: The government has already used such deceptions to quell rebellions
Columnist Dejan Ilić wrote for Peščanik on January 7: "There are good reasons for the regime's fear of a total suspension of teachers' work." It would, no doubt, be a prelude to a general strike, and then... then everything becomes open, including the idea of a transitional government so hated by the regime."
He further stated: "If we trust their 'smarts', this time they will accept, as they did a year ago, all the demands of the teachers, maybe even the dismissal of the minister and her team, but they will again postpone the fulfillment of the demands for, say, a couple months. That's what they've done before, that's how they put down peasant rebellions or protests against lithium mining."
"They say, here we accept, they say, here we won't, people disperse, and they continue as before and accomplish nothing." It is to be hoped that even if their representatives are not smart, the teachers know that this is a very likely scenario and that the strike will not stop until wages equal to the average are paid to their accounts", Ilić concluded in his text.
