New Macedonia Journalists' Union Raises Rights Alarm

Tamara Causidis, head of the new union, told Balkan Insight that they planned to start negotiating with media owners as soon as possible on collective agreements "that guarantee the rights of employees". 

Initial findings of the union, set up in mid-November, had revealed that the situation over worker’s rights was "catastrophic", Causidis said.

"Their fundamental rights as guaranteed by law are constantly being broken," Causidis added.

Routine examples of bad practice included media groups axing staff when they were on sickness leave, and not respecting their guaranteed vacations or working hours.

The union head said their internal inquiry confirmed that almost half the journalists in the country had no health or pension insurance.

Causidis said some media owners keep their journalists on a minimum wage of about 150 euro a month in order to pay less social insurance, paying their staff the rest of their wages in cash. The average salary in Macedonia is some 230 euro a month.

"We cannot speak of freedom of speech when so many journalists effectively have ropes tied around their necks," Causidis said.

The new union was set up in response to fears that existing media guilds had failed to defend journalists' interests.

The Association of Macedonian Journalists has been accused of passivity in the fight against bad working conditions. It is currently electing a new leadership

In its latest report on the country, the European Commission voiced increased concern over the state of the media freedom in Macedonia, noting among other points that too many journalists worked in poor conditions.