Being at work, yet getting a day less annual leave!

The flooded areas in the Skopje region have united the citizens in their solidarity and humanity. Points for collection of donations have been opened throughout Macedonia, and in organized manner, human resources have also assisted in clearing up the field and creating minimum living conditions. But, CIVIL is receiving information on cases of abusing citizens who have volunteered for these actions in removing the damages.

During this period, buses were arriving from several cities from Macedonia, with citizen activists, public administration employees, employees of private firms or with members of political parties…Aside from who, how much and how they helped the citizens of the flooded areas, CIVIL did, however, receive information also on cases of citizens being abused. In order for the action to be displayed as more massive by the media under the control of the government, pressure was made on employees.

In a municipality in central Macedonia a list of employees of the Municipality and of the public enterprises had been made that contained names of around 200 people, which in an organized manner, were supposed to go to the affected areas in the Skopje region. An employee of one of the public enterprises, after seeing his name on the list of people to help in clearing the flooded areas, addressed his supervisor with a request for him to remain at work on the day they were supposed to go clearing up the affected areas in the Skopje region. He explained his request for staying at work with the workload he had for that day, and that there was no else who could carry it out in the enterprise. He received an approval for staying to work in the enterprise and not to leave for clearing the flooded areas, but to someone it was very important that the “volunteers” be more numerous and did not allow any exceptions. Hence, the next day, the employee who had finished his work, noticed that they had marked the previous day is if he were on annual leave!

The lawyer of the enterprise confirmed that assisting in the flooded areas is on a voluntary basis and that it is not mandatory, with the employee emphasizing the fact that he was at work that day fulfilling his regular tasks. At the same time, the lawyer referred him to his supervisors who were responsible for that decision.

Nevertheless, the person employed in the public enterprise, even after having discussed the matter also with the director, did still receive “punishment”, and accepted it although he was revolted. And two more of his colleagues, one of whom had also been at work, and the other who had already been on sick leave, still wait for the response of the supervisors, because part of their annual leave has been taken away.

Biljana Jordanovska

This text is part of the project "Forward", which has the main objective of enabling long-term monitoring, analyses and recommendations in regards to the social-political events and processes in the electoral context. The project is financed with German funds of the Stability Pact for South-eastern Europe..