During a press briefing on the growing problems surrounding the Bechtel highway contract, First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi said that workers won’t be forced to work on the project – this after revelations that the Government bound itself to amend the labour law and to extend the 40 hour work week to a 60 hour work week. Grubi said that if Macedonian construction workers are not willing to work under these terms, the company will bring in workers from abroad.

We want the project to be cheaper and to be built sooner. On the contrary it will cost us more and it will take more time, Grubi added.

He also said that the contract with Bechtel will not be published, citing confidentiality clauses. “That’s the case everywhere where this consortium works, both in Serbia and in the Middle East. It’s not strange”, Grubi said.