A draft law to convert contractual engagements into regular employment would give people working under piecework contracts, copyright contracts, fixed-term contracts or through agencies the opportunity to gain permanent status in the public sector. According to the government, the measure would cover around 6,000 people, the Democratic Renewal of Macedonia (RDM) party announced.
RDM believes that these workers’ prolonged uncertainty and their need for stable employment call for a solution. However, the party is concerned about the lack of clear guarantees regarding expertise, qualifications and equal treatment. It says the proposal does not provide a detailed breakdown of the 6,000 people by institution, and it remains unclear whether these engagements match actual staffing needs.
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“This creates a clear contradiction with Minister Goran Minchev’s public statements about depoliticization and professionalization. The minister cannot keep saying that competence should be the main criterion for hiring while failing to ensure that the merit system is respected. For this reason, RDM calls for full transparency, publicly disclosed criteria, a prior assessment of the needs for each position, and verification of qualifications. Independent oversight of the process and periodic publication of data by institutions are also needed. Only in this way can job security for these workers be guaranteed while protecting the public interest through the efficient use of taxpayers’ funds. The question is not whether these people deserve job security, but whether the state will use this process to achieve genuine professionalization or simply turn existing engagements into permanent jobs. Minchev cannot speak of depoliticization and merit-based hiring without providing concrete guarantees that these principles will also be applied during this transition. Decisions about employment in the administration must finally be taken out of party headquarters and entrusted to professionalism and competence,” RDM said.
