(Podgorica, 19 June 2011) – The announcement of the Parliament of Montenegro’s Staff Union that if their material situation doesn’t improve soon they will launch a strike, and potentially radicalize their protests, demands an immediate reaction from the Parliament’s leadership, headed by Parliamentary President Ranko Krivokapić.
While the assembly’s administrative staff survives at the edge of existence, the same cannot be said for members of parliament (who receive nearly four times the salaries of administrative workers). Additionally, a considerable number of representatives belonging to the ruling coalition also supplement their already substantial incomes through appointments to the boards of state-run companies, where they often earn at least an extra thousand euros a month. At the same time, claims in Parliament are heard that there is not enough money to increase the salaries of administrative workers.
On the other hand, the Parliamentary leadership has continuously emphasized the need to strengthen the work of staff, and improve its functioning. However, elementary logic would suggest that the Parliament can barely retain its existing staff, let alone attract new talent in so far as the salaries of these people are less than those of the lowest skilled private sector workers in Montenegro.
Even though the salaries of MPs cannot be compared to those of the Parliament’s administrative workers, parliamentary president Krivokapić has used every opportunity to convince the public that MPs need higher salaries in order to secure dignified lives. The question remains, if representatives whose salaries average around 1,400 euros a month cannot live with dignity, how can administrative workers whose average salaries are less than 400 euros be expected to survive (not to mention your average citizen).
The Parliament is supposed to be a key institution in the process of European integration, so it is unacceptable that its employees work for wages that are below the average in Montenegro, which don’t permit them to realize even the most elementary conditions of life. Furthermore, these same employees are expected to demonstrate maximum dedication to their work, do frequent overtime, work on several jobs at once, etc. even though they don’t receive additional compensation for any of this.
Considering that Krivokapić is planning to increase the salaries of MPs, we call on him to use that money instead to increase the salaries of administrative workers in Parliament. He must be aware of the fact that the administrative staff is responsible for the smooth functioning of parliament. It’s not possible to expect that such a difficult job should be done by people living at the edge of existence.
In this situation, it is off-base to speak about increasing MP salaries, since they shouldn’t be rewarded unless they accomplish their most basic tasks, including: making substantial gains in the struggle against corruption; improving cooperation with citizens and through the constant monitoring of the Government to ensure that the living conditions of all citizens improve.
For this reason, we call on president Krivokapić to immediately convene a meeting of the Collegium, in order to establish a clear plan for increasing the earnings of the Parliamentary administration as soon as possible and to prevent the radicalization of protests being announced by the Parliamentary Staff Union.
Vuk Maraš,
Monitoring Programme Director
