By After a 6-month delay, the provision of the new General Collective Agreement entered into force, according to which the payment of increased daily wages for work on Sundays is applied to employees in the media. The first Sunday for which increased daily wages are calculated for journalists and other media workers were yesterday, July 2. According to Article 15 of the General Collective Agreement, the employee’s basic salary is increased by at least 80% per hour for work on Sundays, and media companies must now also comply with these provisions.
Namely, the General Collective Agreement that entered into force at the beginning of this year stipulated that the payment of increased daily wages for work on Sundays in the media will not be applied for 6 months from the date of entry into force of that agreement. In that period, it was foreseen that trade unions and employers from the media industry would conduct negotiations on the conclusion of a new Branch Collective Agreement, and if the agreement is not concluded within that period, the provision on increasing daily wages on Sundays for media workers will also be applied. Negotiations were initiated at the proposal of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM) and the Information, Graphic and Publishing Union, but no agreement has yet been reached with the employers.
TUMM, of course, remains committed to reaching a compromise with the employers regarding the new Branch collective agreement, but we believe that the employers must also accept part of our demands so that the agreement would bring at least some new benefits to employees in the media. At the same time, we call on all media workers to insist on the payment of daily wages for work on Sundays, because this right, according to the new General Collective Agreement, has already been acquired by thousands of employees in other industries at the beginning of this year. In this way, the generally poor income of media workers will be improved, that is, those employees who work on Sundays, when the largest number of employed citizens rest, will be rewarded, which is the basic essence of this provision.
Trade Union of Media of Montenegro
