1. Dance of the textile slaves from Delcevo
16 July, 2013 01:50:00
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Textile w orkers go to w ork
Delcevo - Delcevo municipality is located in the end easternpart of Macedonia only 10 km from Bulgaria.
The long transition and uneven economic development has contributed to the municipality to be one of
the least developed, where there is only single employment in textile capacities. Second and last
employment opportunity are public institutions, regularly reservedfor the party soldiers and leads to
absence of the rule of law because they are accountable to the party bosses
by Zoran Bikovski
If you take into account that employers/quasi businessmen are in excellent relations with both
government and the opposition, it is obvious that there is no man, institution or organization
that will take care of the rights of the textile workers. In Delcevo there are about 2000 female
employees in textile factories working 46 to 53 hours a week. According to the Labor Law
every worker, whether in public or private sector, is to work 40 hours a week and holidays are
non-working days. In case he/she works more hours than paid, he/she gets an additional 30%
- 50%, and if there are more than 156 hours of additional working hours he/she gets
13th average salary of RM or 20,860 denars. Unfortunately, today in Delcevo there is a crime
with institutional and political support. For existential dependence the textile workers are
forced to be slaves left in the lurch, forgotten by everyone. We start the reportage with a
simple conversation with a textile worker to add facts that confirm this crime and to show the
methodology according to which it works.

2. Good morning neighbor, where are you going so early? Isn’t it Saturday, go to bed a
little more or maybe you are having insomnia? The neighbor turned to me and looked
at me palely, but did not respond immediately. Her eyes showed fatigue, and her
step was difficult. However, she gathered forces for a gentle smile and said: What
insomnia neighbor, don’t you see I am going to work, for us there are neither
Saturdays, nor holidays, we are slaves with no soul, I'm working for a piece of bread,
in October my daughter is going to the faculty and my husband is jobless. We have
to work as slaves for 7000 denars per month; otherwise we will have no bread.
I lowered my eyes ashamed, and asked: How long are you going to do this?
- I am waiting for the Bulgarian passport so my husband to go to Italy and take us
with him later. From there we will send money to our son and daughter to finish
school.
- Are you becoming Bulgarians, too, what about the pride, the identity?
Again she looked me in the eyes, her eye bags saying a lot, as well as her already
worn out but washed and ironed clothes. It was obvious that there were a lot of things
she wanted to tell me, in her eyes there was not only fear but bitterness, wrath and
anger, but she said: Neighbor, shall I be a Bulgarian or a Macedonian slave? Tell me
what you will do so that I do not become Bulgarian, aren’t you declaring yourself as a
human rights activist, you are all purchased...I have to go now, we will talk some
other time.
However, to have concrete facts we did a small survey and we dealt with statistics.
We chose 50 workers from various textile firms and they were interviewed on a
critical day, Saturday. These are some more important answers that reflect the reality
of their life:

3. -Do you work every Saturday? 100% yes 0% no
-Do you want to work more than 40 hours a week? 0% yes 100% no
-Are you extra paid when working on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays? 0% yes
100% no
-Do you think that the syndicate and labor inspectorate protect your rights? 0% yes
100% no
-Is there a Committee on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women in your
municipality? 10% yes 40% do not know 50% no
-Do your bosses and heads insult you at work and threaten with the sack? 70% yes
30 % no
-Would you report if mobbed at work and are you mobbed? 4 % yes 96% no
However, this story would be incomplete without comments by those in charge. In
training to recognize discrimination a journalist and activist in the civil sector
presented the situation in Delcevo and asked if the textile workers are discriminated
against employees in the public sector and in relation to men, who although in small
numbers are better paid at least? Lence Kocevska, member of the State Anti-
Discrimination Commission answered: It is not about discrimination at all. It is a labor
law violation. Discrimination would be if individuals were not equal, i.e. treated
differently than others. In this case it is a labor law violation, it is not a crime and
people need to report it to the Labor Inspectorate.

4. Zoran Bikovski: Well, personally I have reported several times but they have not
reacted. They respond only to employees in institutions.
Lence Kocevska: You have to be persistent and let them organize.
From there the road leads me to the syndicate. My questions are the same, whether
workers come to report overtime, how is it possible workers to work 27 days a month
and the cards clearly state that they are 22 and if they are planning to take some
actions?
The syndicate member Trajan Mitevski answered: There used to be at least four
cases per week and now there are two per month at most. We offer free legal
assistance and education. Concrete measures are certainly planned to be taken in
future and one of them is to establish a socio-economic council so we, as a
municipality, are obliged to establish it. Why has not it been established so far? I
guess the time has not come. It is true that we all know that the workers work on
Saturdays and holidays and that by the cards everything is clear, it means that
officially nothing can be proved.
Zoran Bikovski: You mentioned education; could you tell me how you educate the
workers?
The syndicate member Trajan Mitevski: In different ways but most often via seminars.
I tried to imagine the workers in comfortable hotel rooms instead of working on
Saturdays, Sundays or holidays. Somehow this is not real. The road leads me to the
labor inspector. The questions are similar as to the other responsible actors who
should react so that the already mentioned abuses not occur.
The labor inspector Ljupco Trencovski from Delcevo said: There are indications of
abuse but when we go to the factories nobody complains. The most important thing

5. is that they all have health and pension insurance and it is good. Penalties for the
bosses are very high and they must not risk. It is only the two of us and we cover the
region of Delcevo and Makedonska Kamenica, which means more than 1000
companies, so physically we are not able to manage both in the office and the
companies. It is not only textile companies, but cafes, shops etc.
Zoran Bikovski: I would like to know how can one complain about working on
Saturday, Sunday or holiday?
Labor inspector Ljupco Trencovski: You see, firstly an employer has the right to hire
an employee to work overtime and on non-working days or holidays. The problem is
whether he is going to pay and if he does not pay, the employee is supposed to
report him.
Zoran Bikovski: Yes, but the card shows that the employee did not work that day,
how will he prove that he has worked?
Labor inspector Ljupco Trencovski: I do not know that and I do not work on
Saturdays.
It would be good to hear businessmen’s opinion, even informally and anonymously.
While having a coffee chat, one of them said: Zoki, it is not about labor exploitation at
all. The rules have been the same since the slave society and it is no big deal. If
someone is not happy, he/she can freely leave and go to another factory.
One thing is certain, the man believes in what he says so I wanted to see how
overtime affects workers’ health. I spoke with an employee of the Health Fund. -
Large quantities of antidepressant therapies and analgesics are used in Delcevo.
The majority of users are exactly the textile workers. As family doctors say, the

6. reasons are physical exhaustion and lack of time to rest and restore the body. The
second reason is stress and the third is low-quality diet.
These are the main actors who need to stop this modern slavery, but are obviously
going to change nothing in the next 10 years. However, it is interesting to see the
internal organizational structure of this type of crime. The principle of operation is
similar to one that Hitler applied to concentration camps. The boss appoints a
director who makes his team organize the work. This team chooses managers,
heads and other personnel of the employed themselves just like supervisors were
chosen in the concentration camps to give orders and make sure norms are met. It is
speculated that these same bosses/heads register their wages in two notepads, one
for inspection, and another for the cashier. So they get 21-22 days, the earned is
transferred and there is no need for legal recompense. Of course then there is no
need of 13th average salary and everything is fine. Here's a bit more of speculations,
as bosses are well coordinated, they all agreed to give employees only 6 days of
collective holiday though legally it is at least 12 days. So they will be on holiday from
August 1st to 11th. Finally a little math, 2000 employees per 1000 denars a month for
each worker extra work multiplied 20,800 denars average salary is exactly 1,000,000
EUR. Of course these are clues, suspicions which should induce the responsible
institutions to do their job, i.e. to demonstrate that it so or just a speculation.
However, we, the people of Delcevo know one thing for sure. If no actions are taken, our
mothers, wives, sisters will be slaves for a long time having no rights except for hope. I see
their dance every Saturday, almost everyone can see it if he/she wants to, a dance which is
painful and which destroys the health of our beloved, but which is invisible for the
institutions, the government and the opposition. This dance makes these slaves dream about a
Bulgarian passport, their husbands to go to Italy and their children never to come back to
Delcevo and take their place in the endless dance.
http://scoop.mk/investigations/166.html