Montenegro is weighing four proposals to raise wages, with Mrdović urging the government to act against unfair trading practices if Prime Minister Milojko Spajić’s Euro model receives parliamentary support. The competing initiatives also include demands from unions and employers and a plan put forward by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
Unions have pressed for more than nine months for an increase in the calculation value of the coefficient, saying it would lift wages by about 11%. Mrdović said she did not consider a pay rise through that route realistic and did not expect the General Collective Agreement to be signed by the end of the year.
She attributed the lack of an expected agreement to a new employer offer and their request to adjust the Euro model. Employers have presented the executive with demands that include setting the minimum wage at either 800 euros or 1,000 euros, while the DPS proposal would subsidise 30% of the minimum wage at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises during 2027.
Mrdović calls for safeguards if model passes
Mrdović said Spajić’s wage programme had prompted competition among political actors, who were aware that the “election contest is very close” and had to address citizens’ economic concerns. She said politicians could also promise pension increases in their election programmes, describing pensions as “quite devalued” and saying more than one hundred thousand citizens could not be left aside.
She said the private sector strongly opposed the Euro model, particularly businesses that had accumulated millions of euros while paying employees low wages and relying on cheap labour. If the model is backed in parliament, Mrdović said the executive should urgently pass a law to prevent unfair trading practices.
In her view, such rules would create conditions to stop artificially induced inflation from cancelling out wage increases and profits from flowing back to the accounts of the wealthiest. Montenegro is approaching European Union membership, a context cited by Milutin Buturović, a minister without portfolio and representative of the Europe Now Movement.
Buturović called the Euro model necessary for citizens, particularly ahead of EU membership, and said government programmes called Europe Now had shown that people could live better. He said the movement had largely delivered on promises concerning wage increases, the rule of law and the European path, and that the state had helped businesses by abolishing some contributions.
He also said salaries of 600 euros and 800 euros would not be enough if Montenegro wanted to join the EU and retain its citizens. As an example of the support to employers, Buturović cited the total gross wage an employer would have to pay for a net salary of 1,000 euros, but gave no amount for that gross cost.
