European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 22 October 2014, four trade unions in Serbia organized a one day strike in many schools across the country following a series of protest actions during the entire month of October.  More than 3.000 teachers participated in the action, demanding among other things to exclude education from the announced salary cuts. According to the Teachers Union of Serbia (TUS), one of ETUCE's member organisation in Serbia, the material situation in education has increasingly worsened since 2008 and the average salary has already been lower than the average salary of all employees in Serbia.

ETUCE sent a solidarity letter to TUS as well as a letter of complaint to the Serbian government. ETUCE reminded the Serbian Ministry of Education of its responsibility as a social partner and called upon to engage with the teacher unions in a constructive social dialogue co-operating together on better solutions in the education sector with the long-term objective to guarantee best quality education for everybody in Serbia.

ETUCE will keep monitoring the situation and support its Serbian member organisations in their efforts to fight for fairer wage standards and social justice in their country.