If by Friday the Government does not sit at the table with the Federation of Trade Unions of the University “St. Cyril and Methodius”, the union will initiate reconciliation before strike. The President of the Federation, prof. Dr. Angel Ristov, in an interview with “360 degrees” on Alsat TV, said that never in the University’s history has the situation of the employees been more difficult and worse.

Ristov says that in the past UKIM’s salaries were at the level of judges and prosecutors, and today assistant professors receive a lower salary than the average. According to the president of the federation, a full-time professor at UKIM earns 39,500 denars per month, and the salary of an assistant professor is 30,590 denars, which is below the national average.

We are one of the few countries in Europe and in the world where an assistant professor, doctor of science, receives a lower salary than the average, said Ristov, adding that the non-teaching staff whose salaries have not been raised for years are most at risk.

Comparing the salaries of colleagues from the region, Ristov says that in Macedonia, university professors are by far the lowest paid.