PM offers teachers two 5% raises

Speaking after the long meeting, Vucevic said teachers and others would get 5% raises in March and again in October. He said the raises were offered the teachers in agreement with President Aleksandar Vucic. According to him, the October raise could bring education system salaries to the level demanded by the unions with the lowest salary equal to the average salary across the country.

Vucevic claimed significant progress in the talks with what he called a positive shift towards a compromise and added that the government called the teachers to stop staging strikes or interrupting classes.

Teachers union officials told reporters after the meeting that they can’t say if the second term will go ahead or not. They said that if their union members agree to the government’s offer the negotiations on their collective contracts could resume. They said that progress had been made at the meeting but did not specify what that means.