The Ministry of Education of Serbia has issued a notice to the directors of primary and secondary schools, stipulating that if a strike is not organized in compliance with legal frameworks, employees are not entitled to remuneration for the days they participated in the strike.

The communication, as seen by the newspaper Blic, reiterates the provisions of the law pertaining to strikes and the minimum necessary operations within educational institutions.

The notice was dispatched in response to numerous queries and complaints from teachers, educators, school directors, and parents concerning the enforcement of regulations related to work obligations and strikes within the educational and childcare system.

According to Article 14 of the Law on Strikes, organizing or participating in a strike under legally defined conditions does not constitute a violation of work obligations, cannot serve as grounds for initiating disciplinary or material liability proceedings, and cannot result in the termination of employment.

Employees participating in a strike maintain their basic employment rights, excluding salary, while certain social security rights remain as outlined by social security regulations.

However, organizers or participants engaging in a strike not compliant with the law will not be afforded the protections outlined in the aforementioned article.

Articles 104 and 105 of the Labor Law define that a salary consists of compensation for the work performed and the time spent working.

Therefore, during a legally organized strike, employees are entitled to a proportional part of their salary corresponding to the time spent working during the strike period.

Further legal clarification comes from Article 79 of the Law on Primary Education and Article 92 of the Law on Secondary Education, which detail the obligations of school employees organizing a strike and the minimum necessary work process that must be maintained by law.

This includes conducting classes for at least 30 minutes per lesson in the daily schedule and fulfilling exam duties, with a minimum weekly work requirement set at 20 hours for specialist associates and extended stay teachers.

In instances where the minimum work process is not upheld and the strike is not legally organized, employees forfeit their right to salaries, according to Article 14 of the Strike Law.

Additionally, Article 126 of the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System outlines the responsibilities of school directors, who are required to apply these legal provisions when processing salary calculations and payments for January 2025 in the ISKRA system.

Once data is entered into the ISKRA system, the salary calculation verification will occur before it is uploaded into the SPIRI system.

Media reports, such as those from NIN, have indicated ongoing work stoppages in many schools due to teachers' dissatisfaction with agreements reached between representative unions and the government, as well as in support of student protests and their demands.

Tatjana Vasović Novosel, the principal of Banović Strahinja Primary School in Belgrade, expressed skepticism about reducing teachers' salaries, arguing that a plan to compensate for lost instruction time has already been developed.

She noted that her school has adopted a plan that could be implemented beginning Monday, February 3, challenging the Ministry’s directive to reduce January salaries of employees who participated in the strike.