Sharon Barrou: "Albania's labor market needs urgent reforms"
09 Nov 2019
The 9th Congress of the Albanian Confederation of Trade Unions was held on November 9.
The event was also attended by Secretary General of the
Confederation of International Trade Unions (ICC) Sharan Barrow and
representatives of about 40 trade union centers around the world.
Col Nicholas,
chairman of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania, spoke about the work
done during the congresses and the results at the event in Tirana. He said that
we have reached more than 450 collective bargaining agreements in the public
and private sectors. The areas covered by the collective bargaining agreement
are quite broad. These include energy, metallurgy, mining, tourism, financial
services, insurance markets, vocational training, training, agriculture and so
on.
Nikolay noted
that despite these achievements, there are still violations of workers' rights
and freedoms in many areas. For example, in many workplaces, women and children
are treated as slaves. There is no employment contract with them. Safety rules
are not followed, labor is not protected. Medical assistance is not provided,
discrimination in payment of wages is allowed. No free lunch. Vehicles are not
allocated to take them to work. There are many negative situations in this
part. Eliminating or reducing these and other negative aspects will be key to
the goals we will set for the next years.
The Chairman
thanked the Confederation of International Trade Unions (ICC) and the
Confederation of the European Trade Unions for their support for Albania's
initiative on EU membership.
In his speech,
Secretary General of the CRA Sharan Barrow said that social problems in Albania
were sufficient. He said that as a result of the economic and social policies
pursued by the government, we are concerned about the gradual deterioration of
the situation of workers and their families.
Unfortunately,
Albania remains one of the poorest in Europe. The minimum wage is 204 euros.
The trade union is rightly proposing to the government to bring this figure to
about 300 euros. Unemployment is high, especially among young people. Their
mass migration continues.
The
government's position puts the development and democratization of the country
at risk. Urgent reforms in labor market policy should be done to reduce
unemployment and bring the minimum wage based on living standards. The
transformation of the Ministry of Labor into the Department of the Ministry of
Economics and Finance can be regarded as disrespectful and indifferent to the
trade union and its members. This means that there is no state policy on labor
problems in the country. Such a policy, in fact, has a negative impact on the
health and safety of workers, and increases the number of fatal accidents.
At the end of
his speech, Barrou highly appreciated the work done by the Confederation of
Albanian Trade Unions to improve the economic and social conditions of its
employees, and promised that the CRC would always be with the Albanian
Confederation of Trade Unions.
Then the
congress continued with the discussion of issues on the agenda.
Col. Nicholas has been re-elected chairman of the
Albanian Alliance.
The
congress was also attended by Deputy Chairman of the Confederation of Trade
Unions of Azerbaijan Agil Dadashov and Deputy Head of the International
Relations Department Anar Mohbaliyev.
