Teachers staged a protest in central Belgrade to demand higher pay and better working conditions.

The teachers blocked the intersection in front of the Serbian government headquarters for an hour and handed their written demands in at the building. The protest marched from the Serbian parliament to the government building. Protesters came into the Serbian capital from across the country.

The demands include raising their average salaries to the national average, higher payments for homeroom teachers and talks on their overall position. The average salary for teachers is 12,000 Dinars (1 Euro – 117 Dinars) lower than the national average and stands at 74,600 Dinars.

The protest was organized by several education system unions.

A teachers’s union official told an N1 reporter that the protest was the first of many and warned that the teachers could strike if their demands aren’t met.