About 20.000 teachers, but also non-teaching staff in educational institutions, were left without salaries or were not paid their full wages for February, it is stated in the announcement of the "Alek Kavčić" Foundation, a writes Dunja Marić for "New Economy".
According to the recommendation of the Belgrade Grammar School Forum, employees in education
system whose salaries are reduced by 25.000 dinars and more, 18.700 is paid from the Foundation's account. For reductions of less than 25.000 dinars, 9.350 dinars are paid.
How much money is needed?
As stated in the announcement, it is estimated that it is necessary to jointly collect about 100 million dinars in aid in order to partially reduce the difference in unpaid wages to educators.
"The largest contribution to the action of solidarity with educators was made by the citizens themselves, and entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized companies, large systems, as well as Serbs from the diaspora immediately got involved. Individually, the highest payment came from the United Group, United Media and SBB systems, which paid more than 10 million dinars in one day, as well as the company Zepter, which paid two million, and Senzal Capital, The Point, among others, responded to the action. "Termopool, volleyball clubs, financial institutions. Through the auction of his jerseys, former basketball player Mića Berić collected and paid 17.500 euros to support educators", according to the "Alek Kavčić" Foundation.
The foundation also states that they are processing new requests from educators who have applied for support by email solidarity@fondacijaalekkavcic.org.
"As the system goes through to confirm that teaching and non-teaching staff have had their wages reduced for February, the payment process takes a little longer, i.e. up to a few days, and in two weeks the money has been paid to the accounts of 2.166 educational workers through the Foundation. The payment process of citizens and companies is efficient and is done quickly through the Foundation's platform. The 'Alek Kavčić' Foundation has the ability to collect donations from individuals and legal entities in Serbia and from the diaspora, through payment cards, by scanning the NBS IPS "QR code, direct payments to a current account, or from abroad to a foreign currency account. All information about the funds collected, the number of volunteers who have accepted the solidarity of citizens and companies, as well as the ways in which payments can be made can be found on the platform www.fondacijaalekkavcic.org/doniraj," the statement said.
The Forum of Belgrade Gymnasiums proposed a fund-raising campaign for employees in schools whose incomes for February were reduced due to the blockade of classes, or who did not receive their salaries at all. Employees in the IT sector were the first to join this action. Namely, the association IT Serbia formed a solidarity network and connects individuals with teachers in order to provide assistance, which is available through the website mrezasolidarnosti.org.
