Fair Wear has joined the national initiative and multi-stakeholders’ platform as a signatory for the Declaration of a Living Wage in North Macedonia. This initiative is led by the local labour rights organisation, Glasen Tekstilec, and is shaped to raise awareness of the need to institutionalise the category of living wage in the country.
Background
Despite a living wage being a human right acknowledged by the EU and other international standards, it is not currently a recognised benchmark or category in North Macedonia. Instead, the country operates with a legal minimum wage. Though discussions on living wage as a category have been raised through Fair Wear’s work in the country in recent years, local stakeholders have as yet not been carrying this forward.
Glasen Tekstilec is a local labour rights organisation. It was formed in 2017 by textile workers and activists as a voluntary, non-profit, non-governmental association working to protect workers’ human and labour rights in North Macedonia. Fair Wear and Glasen Tekstilec have been working closely together on improving labour rights in the textile sector in North Macedonia for the last four years.
During Glasen Tekstilec’s annual event, “Tekstilijada 2022”, on 7th October, the platform for a living wage was promoted and officially signed by 15 local and international stakeholders. The Minister of Labour and Social Policy, trade unions, employers’ associations, and other governmental institutions attended the event.
The Declaration
The signatory platform is made up of trade unions, employers’ associations, and other NGOs and civil society organisations. The main objective is to use the declaration to lobby and advocate for the government to work on a living wage as a benchmark in local law and as an official statistical indicator to measure the standard of living across the country.
The signatories of this platform call on:
The organisations supporting this initiative can sign the declaration online.