Nezavisne novine: BANJALUKA – The Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, said yesterday that salaries of the education workers, police officers and employees of the public administration will be higher than now, after the adoption of the set of laws on the incomes of the budget users.

“Primary objective of the government was to raise the salaries in all the sectors, especially in education”, said Dodik during the break of the session of the Parliament of the RS, which until the printing of this issue of “Nezavisne”, adopted the Law on incomes of the education workers.

He stressed that the set of laws on salaries of employed in education, Ministry of Interior and public administration is harmonised with the unions and that it presents significant change in relation to the manner of payment of salaries so far.

After the adoption of the new law, a teacher in an elementary school instead of present 610, will receive the salary of 750 KM, a professor in a high school will receive 900 KM, and an associate professor, 1.700 KM.

While the position was commending this law, putting forward the increase and equalisation of the salaries, the MPs from the opposition criticised the proposal, claiming that this set of laws deepens the gap between the budget users and employed in the commerce. Some employees warned also that according to the new law as well, the employees in the education still have lesser salaries in relation to the other budget users, such as the police, although they have the same level of education.

According to the data from the Government, the salaries in the education, compared to 2005, increased almost two times.

“For the past five years salaries have been still or corrected to very small extent.” said Dodik and pointed that objections, which could be heard in the Parliament, were motivated by the need to “say something”.

In the sector of the police, the increase in salaries will be, according to the Government officials, significant, since, for example, the police officer will have a salary of around 800 KM plus past work. Inspectors would receive around 1.400 marks, instead of 800.

The representatives of the police union expressed satisfaction with this law, saying that this represents significant increase.

Special decision for the salaries of the officials

Salaries of the officials, however, were nor yesterday discussed by the MPs, since their salaries will be established by a special decision of the Government.

Milorad Dodik, the Prime Minister of the RS, pointed out that that is the case since the elected officials are not public servants to be covered by the Law on the Employees of the Public Administration.

He said that the Government, because of the low salaries, has a problem with keeping the good employees, pointing out that many municipal mayors have a bigger salary than the Prime Minister.

Salary of the police officer 800 KM

National Assembly adopted last night in urgent procedure the Law on Salaries of the Employees of the Ministry of Interior of the RS, of the penal-correctional facilities and of the judicial police, according to which the salary of the police officer will be 800 KM plus provisions for the past work, while the salary of the inspector with higher education will be 1.400 KM plus provisions for the past work.

For this law, 77 MPs voted in favour, nobody was against, while one was abstained.

According to this law, provisions for the salaries of the employees of the Ministry of Interior of the RS, in the budget for 2008, will be 33 million KM higher, while the salary of the police officer will be increased by 190 KM on a monthly level.

Salaries of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior of the RS will be higher by 72 per cent then on the January 1st, 2006, while the police officers, who at the beginning of 2006 had a salary of 477 KM, will now receive 800 KM, plus provisions for the past work.

Inspectors with higher education, who were receiving 812 KM last year, will now have a salary of 1.400 KM, plus provisions for the past work.