European Trade Union Committee for Education

The Trade Union of Education of Montenegro (TUEM) represents the interests of 90% of employees in the education sector and is the only representative trade union of education in Montenegro. Representatives of TUEM are also members of the National Council for Education, various boards, commissions and working groups responsible for law-drafting in the field of education.

In 2016, TUEM reported that the position of education workers in Montenegro was still at a low level, and their salaries are below the average salary at national level. Education reform that was started in 2003 did not produce the expected results. The most pressing issues at stakes for TUEM currently include irrationally structured network of educational institutions and its employees and insufficient IT equipment in schools.

During 2015, TUEM carried out intensive negotiations with the government over the Branch Collective Agreement for the education sector with the aim of providing better working conditions for education workers. The signing of Agreement in February 2016 resulted in the increase of salaries by 5% for all education workers. Moreover, the Agreement provided for new categories to increase salary coefficients by additional 5% (on top of the general increase) for teachers in preschool and primary education institutions, such as working in inclusive classes without assistants; teaching four or more subjects; and working in an institution that is more than 5 km away from the teacher’s home and where there is no organized transport. The Agreement also standardized the remuneration for education workers whose students win one of the top three places in the international or national competitions, and established the obligation of the Ministry of Education to discuss with TUEM a budget for the coming year.

As for the teachers’ social security, the Agreement confirmed that the education employer has to pay a contribution equal to 0.2% of the employee’s salary on a monthly basis to the Fund for recreation and rehabilitation of employees in education. Moreover, the Government of Montenegro has to transfer funds in the amount of 450 000 Euros annually to the Housing Cooperative of TUEM to provide teachers with affordable housing. Housing Cooperative was founded by TUEM in 2002 to build housing units in different cities and to offer education workers the apartments under more favourable conditions, as well as to give loans and credits with the minimum interest rate. The Agreement also increased the amount of the retirement severance pay in the education sector, as well as the financial aid in the event of death of a family member.

Finally, the Branch Collective Agreement introduced an important mechanism ensuring that teachers have enough teaching hours to receive a full salary. At the municipal level were created joint working teams consisting of the representatives of TUEM and municipal schools’ headmasters in order to complete, before the start of the new school year, the lists of available classes that can be taken by teachers who do not have a full norm of teaching hours.

TUEM plans to continue the struggle and will negotiate, in 2017, the possible increase of teachers’ salaries and allocations from the state budget for the education sector. It will also continue working on the consistent implementation of the Branch Collective Agreement.