16. 01. 2003

Highest Ratings, Lowest Salaries For RTS

BELGRADE, January 16, 2003 – After Radio Television Serbia general director Aleksandar Crkvenjakov and the Serbian Government failed to meet the requests of company employees, the labour Union Independence launched yesterday legal procedures for the holding of a strike. The government has been asked to define the minimum work requirements. The law stipulates that a strike must be announced 10 days in advance, so the union has called a strike for January 28. Since the union wrote to the Government about this matter yesterday, the Government has five days to reply. RTV Novi Sad will also join the strike. The workers’ main demand was to define the status of RTS based on the Broadcast Act in line with which the company should be transformed into a public service. A 30 per cent pay rise is also one of the demands. The average salary amounts to eleven thousand dinars (about 180 euros), and the RTS workers have been promised a pay rise.