PUBLIC RELEASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ZENICA TRADE UNION ORGANIZATION

Esteemed representatives of the media, respected fellow citizens,

I would like to be able to inform you that we have successfully concluded the negotiations regarding the new Collective Agreement for the field of higher education in the area of the Zenica Doboj Canton (KU), but unfortunately we have not yet. After misplaced information by MONKS ZDK officials, as well as the ZDK prime minister, I have to react as the president of the Trade Union Organization of the University of Zenica (SO UNZE). Let the public ask themselves why government representatives are the first to come forward with disinformation to the public, if they propose something good for the University...?
I am a professor of the history of the state and law of BiH, in BiH people died to be free and the University was and will remain a bastion of freedom and I am asking for your support in this. We must know that in this country we live in freedom that no one can ever infringe on, both from the outside and from the inside. No one has the right to pressure us in any way regarding what and how we will speak, declare, communicate. What I am going to present to you are only facts, mere truths. As an additional confirmation of that, I am open to a public meeting and conversation with the Prime Minister and the Minister because I stand behind the facts you will hear!
ONCE AGAIN: We call on the ZDK Government, in the interest of ZDK citizens who need a strong university, to be at the level of responsibility and leadership that the people who lead it must have, to support the further development of UNZE with the KU proposal that we have agreed on and which is not a financial problem for the budget that it is clear from the state of the Budget that we should sign it tomorrow or Wednesday and publicly thank them regardless of the aforementioned misunderstandings! It is normal to have disagreements, but we live in freedom and are obliged to speak the truth, and we are all here in the public sector because of the public interest - and that, in concrete terms, is the strong University of Zenica!
We have to state the following in order to protect the principle of truth.

FIRST: The UNZE trade union is the initiator and proposer of the conclusion of the new KU, and there are documents about this. The SO of UNZE was the first and only one to take the position that all employees of UNZE should receive the same increase, however with what the Government is proposing, with this KU, about a hundred professors, assistants and others would be denied the increase that the Government is telling us about! - That is about 1/3 of UNZA's employees. So it is untrue that the proposed Government proposal is about a linear salary increase for all workers.

SECOND: When it comes to salaries in general, look at the differences compared to universities in Tuzla and Sarajevo. Zenica is by far the last, with teachers' salaries of less than 500 to 1000 KM, you heard that right, with salaries as low as 50% compared to the salaries of teaching staff in Tuzla and Sarajevo. This information, if we're going to talk about money, testifies to the government's attitude towards the essence of higher education in ZDK.

THIRD: We held 4 meetings with the representatives of the negotiation team of the old Government, after which the initialing of the CU followed in October 2023 - the previous Government had already accepted and initialed the collective agreement to mutual satisfaction - the new government tried to change that CU, I want to believe and improve it, after which we almost reached an agreement - that in the last version some new changes, unfavorable for UNZE workers and its development, would be delivered to us.

FOURTH: We inform you that at the last session 7-23 SO UNZE, a Conclusion was passed on the conditional acceptance of the proposed Collective Agreement, with the obligation to correct Art. 26 st. 2 (provision by which there would be no increase for 1/3 of the employees), by deleting the reference to the Decision on standards and norms, after which we are ready to sign the same.
At the same session, we passed the Decision on going on a warning strike, and before the general strike until the Government corrects Art. 26th century 2 of the proposed text of the KU as we previously emphasized.

FIFTH: Is there any legal problem for those coefficients to remain after 15 years of application: There is none! How could something be paid for 15 years or more because there is no legal basis? Another key argument clear to every lawyer is that the additional right of the worker in relation to any general act (standards, norms) or hierarchically higher regulation cannot be legally disputed - you just cannot give the worker fewer rights in relation to those higher and general regulations.

SIXTH: The abolition of those coefficients is much more dangerous than the fees themselves, because it stops the development of the University and eliminates the possibility to use approx. 150 KM is additionally motivated and stimulated by those employees who want to work much more than their regular teaching duties - especially at the moment when we do reaccreditation, those employees work on hundreds of pages of plans, reports, initiatives, projects, preparations without which the University cannot complete reaccreditation! Why would any of the employees work much more for the same income? Is it someone's goal that UNZE does not pass reaccreditation?

SEVENTH: Anyone who knows anything about LABOR law - and we teach that - I think this is the first proposal to abolish NEW collective rights that have been in force for more than 15 years.

I will move on from the series of disinformation that started to spread after the change of government in ZDK. We understand this misinformation as activities aimed at creating unrest and chaos within the Trade Union organization itself, that is, among UNZE workers, which is not correct at all. Disinformation, which was probably intended to show the generosity of the new ZDK Government by superficially showing the salary increase of workers at UNZE, and which was published on Tuesday afternoon, caused unrest among the workers at UNZE, because the head of the government presented a series of incorrect information .

This, of course, is not the first attack on the Trade Union by the new Government, which I regret to state. The first blow was disinformation from 01.12. when the assistant for higher education at MONKS ZDK noted that we had just started negotiations, ignoring not only ours but also their own activity in this matter, because we started negotiations about the new KU back in August last year. Speaking about the negotiations regarding the conclusion of the new KU, the assistant minister put pressure on SOUNZE in a completely unnecessary and incoherent way, stating that the Government expects legality and progress in the quality of work from UNZE. With such statements, pressure was exerted on the Union by perfidiously shifting the focus of the story from our negotiations regarding the new KU to the relationship between the government and the management of UNZA, which is not at all part of the SO UNZA, nor can it be, nor is this relationship the subject of our interest.

The second blow was the announcement made by the Prime Minister of ZDK the day before yesterday. We'll take that news in order. First, the Prime Minister pointed out that the government proposed a linear salary increase of 250 KM, which is incorrect. As the president of the SO UNZE and the first man of the negotiation team, I responsibly claim that the increase of 250 KM is our proposal, that is, the proposal of the SO UNZE and not the Government. Secondly, the government did not take the position that it would not go for a percentage increase, but SO UNZE, within which the decision was made that we should all feel the benefits of the salary increase equally, because we are affected by the same price increases.

What the prime minister said is pure falsehood, or one of his associates who prepare statements for him inserted that falsehood into him: how the management of the University of Zenica insisted on a percentage salary increase. Dare I say, this is another in a series of falsehoods. Only SO UNZE was involved in this negotiation process as an independent organization and that is how we acted.

After we held 4 meetings with the representatives of the negotiation team of the old Government, followed by the initialing of the KU in October 2023, there was a change of government in the Canton, after which we continued negotiations with the negotiation team of the new Government and held 2 more meetings.

After we had arranged almost everything, we had a negative experience. On Thursday, 21.12. we received a KU proposal from the Government, which we were sure was in line with our previous agreements. So, when we were on the verge of signing, an unpleasant surprise happened to us. In Article 26 para. 2, which was supposed to remain the same as it was until now, about which we even reached an agreement to remain as it is, one change was made, one intervention, which I will explain to you below. Namely, all workers at UNZE perform additional tasks for which, based on the Rulebook on salaries, to which the Government has given its consent, they are entitled to a functional allowance of up to 150-200 KM. These are the jobs of: ECTAS coordinator, quality manager, chairman of NNV, chairman of the Senate, head of the Department at OJ. These are huge tasks, the burden of which is assumed by certain employees, and if they did not do it, it would require additional hiring of workers, which would be a big blow to the budget. Therefore, these jobs are performed by our workers, teaching and non-teaching staff, for whom we are advocating that they pay equally for their work, but we encounter obstructions there as well. The proposed Art. 26 st. 2 provides for the adoption of the Ordinance on wages, but based on the Decision on Norms and Standards, which does not regulate any functional supplement. Simply, it would mean, not only an obligation to reduce the personal income of dozens of UNZE workers, but also the obstruction of UNZE's development in the period when its reaccreditation is to follow. Just to mention, the burden of that re-accreditation is borne by our employees, who with extra efforts perform tasks outside the job description of their workplace.

So, if they were to sign the KU with such a provision, they would commit to abolishing the benefits to which our workers are entitled according to the valid Ordinance on wages, which has been in force for years and was approved by the then Government, and which only regulates functional allowances. Now compare the potential abolition of benefits with the amount mentioned by the prime minister, which is our proposal, and you will see that the principle behind it is: "we give you on the bridge, we take it on the bridge!" So, close to 1/3 of the workers at UNZE would lose what they would supposedly gain when it comes to augmentation.

Secondly, much more dangerous than benefits, personal income and money is the suffocation of the institution. To be very clear, the abolition of those coefficients is much more dangerous than the fees themselves, because it stops the development of the university and eliminates the possibility for the managers of organizational units to additionally motivate and stimulate those employees who want to work much more than their regular duties in teaching with approx. 150 KM - especially at the moment when we do the reaccreditation, these people work on hundreds of pages of plans, reports, initiatives, projects, preparations without which the University cannot complete the reaccreditation! Why would any of the employees work much more for the same income? Is it someone's goal that UNZE does not get accreditation?

I will take this opportunity to emphasize that the prime minister was, and remains, a worker of UNZE, a child of UNZE, and that I cannot understand this kind of attitude towards UNZE workers, only if his associates spread half-information and untruths to him - and here is his chance to fix it - we invite him and as our colleague not to allow the development of UNZA to stop. Because no matter how long the mandates last, everyone has to return to their institution sometime...
When it comes to the financing of the doctoral study, let's just not mention that after we agreed on the principle of co-financing the same, because the government representatives did not even want to hear that they would bear the entire amount of costs, the UNZE workers, apart from the trade union and the negotiation team, came forward to comment on what was obviously appropriate prime minister and what they are semi-informed about. We do not want nor do we intend to comment on anyone's statements, but we must speak out when it comes to misplaced information by those who were not part of the negotiation process. After we agreed to bear part of the expenses of the doctoral study for all doctoral students - our collaborators, we were suddenly served with the provision of Art. 52 st. 8, which allows only employees of the institution whose founder is the canton, teaching and research staff, because the founders have a lot to ensure for non-teaching staff as well, the release of all the expenses of the doctoral study, which leaves room for dissatisfaction among workers who can only get a doctorate outside UNZE, where the doctorate is the cycle is open and will be denied those government benefits. Look at the paradox, when we mentioned this during the negotiations, the same people on the other side refused this because of potential discrimination, and even the amount they said they couldn't bear. Suddenly they can, and that's wonderful, but let them make sure that they don't leave room for discrimination and new court proceedings among the workers. If the Government is ready to cover the costs of PhD students - workers at UNZE, we warmly welcome that and call on them to make it possible for all workers, which many of them have requested.

ONCE AGAIN: We call on the ZDK Government to, in the interest of ZDK citizens who need a strong university, to be at the level of responsibility and leadership that the people who lead it must have, to support the further development of UNZE with the KU proposal that we have agreed on and which is not a financial problem for the budget that it is clear from the state of the Budget that we should sign it tomorrow or Wednesday and publicly thank them regardless of the aforementioned misunderstandings! It is normal to have disagreements, but we live in freedom and are obliged to speak the truth, and we are all here in the public sector because of the public interest - and that, in concrete terms, is the strong University of Zenica!

With respect!

PRESIDENT SOUNZA
Ajdin Huseinspahić, c. prof.