"Carrot and stick"/ The Municipality of Fier breaks the strike of cleaning workers

The Municipality of Fier verbally promised better conditions and a 13th salary to the rural cleaning workers, while also exerting pressure to stop the strike announced by them. The Labor Inspectorate stated that it was verifying the situation two weeks after the announcement of the strike.

More than 30 employees of the cleaning company for rural areas in the municipality of Fier announced on November 18 the start of an indefinite strike and listed as demands an increase in wages, better working conditions and respect for some rights, including annual leaves that they said that they did not receive them.

But only one day after the announcement of the indefinite strike, the rural area cleaning workers in the municipality of Fier returned to work without their demands being met and the raised claims not being examined.

One of the workers, who spoke to BIRN on the condition of anonymity because of fears for their jobs, said the strike failed the next day after workers were contacted by city officials who promised better conditions and a salary of 13- to. He also said that one of the organizers was penalized, being transferred to the night shift.

"When I went to the park the next day (parking lot for cleaning vehicles of the municipality where the employees' strike started), none of my colleagues were there, they were scattered at work. They had been on the phone since that night. That's how I was forced to start work, because we have a living," said the employee.

"They will find the trap and fire you," he added, referring to his superiors.

Another worker, a participant in the strike, told BIRN that the workers had met with municipal officials the next day, where they had been promised that they would be given the 13th salary and would be supplied with additional tools and clothing to improve working conditions. work.

"No, we stopped the strike because they promised us the 13th salary. They told us that they will bring new clothes and equipment and improve working conditions. Now we don't know when they will pay us this year or from the beginning of next year," said Enver Licaj, an employee of the Cleaning Company in the Municipality of Fier.

Emiljano Skenda, director of the Cleaning Company in the municipality, accepts the problems reported by the employees, but said that they were trying to give them solutions.

"What we did immediately after the employee's protest, which I must emphasize, could have been avoided if the workers had gone to the directorate first because we would have given a solution to the problem, is that we paid off, and are paying off, the hourly payments additional and annual leave arrears,” said Skenda.

Skenda admitted that the employees were promised a 13th salary, but said that this was not the competence of the enterprise and he simply knew that it was being discussed. Skëndaj said that immediately after the strike, the employees were equipped with new uniforms and added that he had only been in office for a few weeks, implying that he had not been aware of the problems.

For more than two weeks after starting the strike and reporting unfair treatment at work, the workers said they were not contacted by the Labor Inspectorate and that no one but municipal officials cared about them.

"No one has contacted us other than the meeting we had with the leaders in the municipality, where they told us that they will pay us for work difficulties, 13th salary, they will pay us for overtime and they will give us new equipment, clothes, etc." said Enver Licaj for BIRN.

BIRN learned that the Labor Inspectorate was set in motion just two weeks after the strike. The director of the Inspectorate for the region, Tereza Lacaj, said that the inspection as a procedure starts mainly whenever there are claims or denunciations from employees. She said that the inspection for the case started on Monday, December 2, and that the delay came as they were engaged in another procedure.

"We are dealing with another inspection this period, so the case of Fier municipality employees will be opened today as a procedure. The inspection in such cases takes time, but what we can say at this moment is that the claims of the employees, even when they are only made in the media, are the reason for the initiation of the inspection procedure," Lacaj told BIRN.

The Cleaning Company in the municipality of Fier has 150 employees who are paid the minimum salary of 40,100 (gross) lek, but the cleaning brigade of rural areas works in difficult conditions due to the lack of tools and the removal of bins in rural areas. /BIRN