03.03.2015.

Meeting of Minister Gasic with representatives of trade unions

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and Chief of Serbian Armed Forces General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic met today with representatives of representative trade unions and trustees of registered trade unions in the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces. The reason for the meeting, as Minister Gasic said in his statement to the media, were pamphlets, which one of the branch unions shared today in front of the Ministry of Defence presenting misinformation that bring discomfort among members of the Armed Forces.

- We felt the need to call on all unions to immediately respond and stop the lies that are being made about that - Gasic said, adding that there is no question about the alleged reduction of wages in May in the Serbian Armed Forces according to speculations.

At the meeting, according to the Minister, topic of the discussion was the statement of the Military Trade Union of Serbia denying the statement of the Prime Minister on the amount of salaries in the Serbian Armed Forces. The Minister explained that the Prime Minister presented the data on the total amount of income of a Major of fighter aviation that in January totalled about 113,000 dinars including all the allowances and fringe benefits and that the Prime Minister received that information officially from the Ministry of Defence.

- We did not want to talk about that in the moment when the family (of the Major who committed suicide) is experiencing a difficult time, but after false allegations in some media we had to respond to it – the Minister pointed out.

He added that in the meeting it was discussed on how the representatives of the military trade unions can appear in public and in which cases they should appear in the role of trade union leaders or as officers of the Armed Forces. Minister recalled that the rules must be clear also when it comes to military priests, who are officers and for whom it is exactly prescribed in which situations they wear uniforms with insignia of the rank and in which the priest's robes. Gasic recalled that, according to the rules for appearing in the media, the Chief of General Staff is also obliged to ask for the consent of the Minister and concluded that this area should be defined precisely in cooperation with the trade unions.

Novica Antic, Acting President of the Military Union of Serbia, which is the only one that has representativeness in the defence system, agreed with Minister Gasic when it comes to placing pamphlets with unverified information by one of the trade union organisations.

- The reason for today's meeting is not good, but it is good that we met anyhow. I hope that in the forthcoming period in a dialogue with the Minister and the people of the General Staff we will manage to overcome the problems we face. The problems that we have, of course, are not for the public, because it is in the interest of the defence system, but it is good that we have met today and that we will be able to solve them – Antic said.

The first man of the Military Union of Serbia pointed out that the problems with which their members are faced are not only of the existential nature and expressed his hope that these difficulties will be overcome in the forthcoming period and that a collective agreement with the employer will be signed, which is the ultimate goal of the Military Trade Union of Serbia.

Antic explained the reason for the response of the Military Trade Union of Serbia to the statement by the Prime Minister about the amount of income in the Armed Forces, saying that there was a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the data presented. He pointed out that the data presented by the Prime Minister were related to the revenues of officers who are pilots of fighter airplane that are far greater than those of other members of the Armed Forces, and that nobody explained that clearly. According to Antic, union members responded to such allegations in the media, because some members of the Armed Forces came into conflict with people who are letting apartments to them. Acting president of the Military Trade Union of Serbia concluded that the whole incident occurred because of poor communication with the employer, and expressed the hope that it would not happen in the future.