In a few working days, every teacher should be listed by name and their actions and activities in the general chaos of the mass strike in schools in Serbia.
Because the state gave the directors so much time to submit lists of work and non-work of educators, during suspension of classes in primary and secondary schools, in support students in blockades.
"We should receive the salary for January on February 6, and our director received an order to send who worked and who did not," Tamara, a teacher in a village school, told "Vreme".
"She will not send a report because we are all on strike, but I believe some will." I just don't understand how they will do it from January 31 to February 6 for so many teachers and how they will treat complete non-work - as a strike or as a reason for dismissal."
The starting salary of a teacher, according to the estimate of the Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia, is about 96.000 dinars, so according to that calculation, non-work, i.e. reduced hours, is worth about 500 dinars less per day on the teacher's account. Thus, the average teacher who has been on strike since January 20 will receive - about 5.000 dinars less for January.
Tamara says that, because they don't work at all, they are threatened with dismissal, but that, at the moment, she and her colleagues "at least want to go back to work".
Prema Law on Strike, the teacher's salary can be reduced by 15-16 percent per day when they work for 30 minutes, but the law does not recognize the case of not teaching at all. Thus, it is not clear how teachers who do not work at all or those who, as is the case in numerous schools in Serbia, will be paid for one day, so they held classes for half an hour on the following two days, and then again on Friday, 24 In January, when there was a general strike, they didn't have classes again.
"When it comes to salary, there is a lot to talk about." First, we are on a work stoppage due to threatened security, and we appeal to that, so the Law on Strike does not apply to us", Dušan Kokot, president of the Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia, claims for "Vreme".
"Furthermore, if they pay us less, those classes will never be held, so this threat about extending the school year is not logical either." Also, the salary reduction cannot be implemented without the entire announced procedure, which the state has not undertaken."
Threats to teachers are not at all based on realistic grounds, thinks Ranka Savić, president of the Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions, who tells "Vreme" that there is no legal basis to reduce the salaries of those who do not work at all, except to fire them.
"And who will fire a teacher today, when he knows that just one firing means chaos in the country." I don't think anyone will dare", she adds.
What have they threatened and who believes them
Na list of threats to teachers so far they have found themselves - the extension of the school year and work during the summer vacation, a reduction in wages for those who are on strike, but also dismissal, and Kokot says that he no longer trusts them.
"Here, we are ready to make up for what we missed, to work a few days longer or shorten the construction, but we will talk about that later, when the strike is over, not now," he added. "The second semester has not actually started."
Although it is practically and in the field impossible to accurately list the activities of each teacher for each day, the union member adds that, in the event of a salary reduction, he will sue the state because in such cases there is no statute of limitations of three years.
"By then, the class action lawsuit will have already been filed," says Kokot.
Who works and who doesn't?
The exact number of schools and educators who do not teach is not known, because the data of the Ministry and individual unions differ.
By the end of the month, the Belgrade high schools, which are in complete suspension, will not work, as will all primary and secondary schools in the Zrenjanin area.
And most of the schools in Čačak have suspended work until the students' demands are met, and some in Ivanjica, Kragujevac and Gornji Milanovac will not work, Aleksandar Ninić, president of the Čačak Education Union, told the BBC.
On the day of the general strike, January 24, 68 percent of high schools and 48 percent of elementary schools in Serbia were closed, according to data from non-governmental organizations THE LINE.
"Here, we are ready to make up for what we missed, to work a few days longer or shorten the construction, but we will talk about that later, when the strike is over, not now," he added. "The second semester has not actually started."
Although it is practically and in the field impossible to accurately list the activities of each teacher for each day, the union member adds that, in the event of a salary reduction, he will sue the state because in such cases there is no statute of limitations of three years.
"By then, the class action lawsuit will have already been filed," says Kokot.
Who works and who doesn't?
The exact number of schools and educators who do not teach is not known, because the data of the Ministry and individual unions differ.
By the end of the month, the Belgrade high schools, which are in complete suspension, will not work, as will all primary and secondary schools in the Zrenjanin area.
And most of the schools in Čačak have suspended work until the students' demands are met, and some in Ivanjica, Kragujevac and Gornji Milanovac will not work, Aleksandar Ninić, president of the Čačak Education Union, told the BBC.
On the day of the general strike, January 24, 68 percent of secondary and 48 percent of primary schools in Serbia were in some form of work stoppage, according to data from non-governmental organizations THE LINE.
