European Trade Union Committee for Education

The COVID 19 outbreak is a public health crisis quite different than anything Europe has faced for many years. As education personnel and their trade unions grapple with the outbreak, we are supporting and informing member organisations in any way we can.

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• ETUCE study on Education Trade Unions in Europe facing COVID-19 Omicron Variant
• Well-being of academics and researchers in the Netherlands: who did COVID-19 affect the most?
• Belgium: Education is essential! Truly?
• Education and Training Monitor 2021 sheds light on well-being during COVID-19
• Education trade unions building capacity for renewal beyond COVID-19
• Romania: Success in the negotiations for a vaccination agreement
• UK Study found stress and anxiety of academics above national average during COVID-19 pandemic
• Latvia: the impact of the pandemic on teachers is extremely worrying
• French study: the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on researchers

In Montenegro, like everywhere else in Europe, the school year has been strongly affected by the pandemic and its unprecedent consequences: start of the school year postponed, new online teaching methods, a high rate of infected students and education personnel, as well as challenging working conditions. The Trade Union of Education of Montenegro (TUEM) has not stopped supporting its members. “The trade union struggle must be continuous and we should never be completely satisfied with the achieved results, but persistently fight for the dignity of every education worker “, affirms Mrs Slavka Bošković, President of the TUEM.

The TUEM keeps fighting for its request for the valorisation of overtime work during the pandemic. This is the first point of discussion of the Platform, which was adopted by the TUEM Executive Board in December, and which will be presented to the newly constituted Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports. “We have evidence that teachers and other education personnel are overburdened (due, among other things, to the new hybrid teaching methods), and we expect that we will solve this problem through social dialogue. If we fail, we will have to demand our rights through competent institutions. At the same time, we must fight for the equality of the teachers’ salaries with those of the public sector. This is the minimum that the state should do for people who transfer knowledge to young people”, says Mrs Slavka Bošković.

TUEM is planning to hold its Congress, which had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first quarter of 2021.

The ETUCE reasserts its support of TUEM and all its member organisations, tirelessly working to ensure safe and quality working conditions for all education workers in Europe. ETUCE, once again, calls on governments to strive for a healthy and inclusive recovery, prioritising the education sector as outlined in the ETUCE statement The Road to Recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis.