Centre for Civic Education (CCE) points to a significant disparity between the salaries of employees at the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU) and the fees received by CANU academicians.
The CCE previously submitted a request to CANU for free access to information, seeking a list of employees within the CANU service, their educational qualifications and salary data. Although CANU did not provide a complete list with all requested information, incorrectly referring to the Law on Personal Data Protection, the submitted documentation clearly shows that the basic salaries of CANU employees are exceptionally low compared to the monthly academic awards and other fees received by associate and full members of CANU.
The CCE obtained data on educational qualifications and job positions for 41 employees, while salary data were provided for 33 of them. More than 20% of them receive the minimum wage of 600 euros, including at least one person holding a bachelor’s degree. The CCE recalls that the law stipulates that persons with a bachelor’s degree should receive a minimum salary of 800 euros, which is why we call on CANU to urgently align salaries with the law in cases of such discrepancies. It should also be noted that only six employees, out of the 33 for whom data were provided, receive a salary of 1,000 euros or more, while the highest recorded salary amounts to 1,301.61 euros.
Of the three Master’s degree holders whose salaries are available, one receives 1,024.96 euros, another 951.47 euros, while the lowest-paid Master’s degree holder earns 891.50 euros. Among the employees, there are also four holders of a Doctor of Science degree. Two of them earn 1,022.48 euros each, one earns 1,061.57 euros, while the lowest-paid holder of a Doctor of Science degree receives 947.44 euros. For comparison, the plane ticket for Dragan Vukčević to attend the conference in Moscow in 2024 amounted to 759.19 euros.
The average salary of employees at CANU amounts to 864 euros, which is significantly below the Montenegrin average. According to MONSTAT data, the average net salary in Montenegro amounted to 1,022 euros, meaning that the average salary of CANU employees is, according to the available data, 158 euros lower than the national average.
It is important to note that some CANU employees generate additional income through engagements on lexicons, the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro and other CANU activities, but these are occasional jobs. Bearing in mind that the CANU budget continues to grow, amounting to a record 3.13 million euros this year, and that the building in which CANU is located cost 9 million euros, it is surprising that CANU economises precisely on the employees who enable its daily functioning, with the note that this type of cost-saving is not applied to CANU members, both male and female.
The CCE also recalls that CANU members last year received an average monthly payment of 2,095 euros from CANU, or 2.4 times, that is, 1,231 euros more than the average salary of employees in that institution. At the same time, members are not obliged to attend CANU on a daily basis, which some of them make considerable use of.
Furthermore, unlike CANU employees, members receive a monthly academic award, which represents an addition to their professors’ salaries, pensions and other income. In addition to academic awards, they also receive fees for participation in projects, functions they perform within CANU, attendance at certain sessions, etc. The total amount allocated for their fees last year amounted to almost one million euros (EUR 930,265.80).
Additionally, the CANU Presidency appointed itself, together with three CANU employees, to the Working Team for the commencement of work on the Encyclopaedia of Montenegro, which from 7 February 2023 to 1 September 2024 spent 104,044.52 euros on fees.
The CCE also notes that communication with CANU employees has shown them to be dedicated and responsible professionals, which is why we believe that their work must be adequately valued in accordance with their education, responsibility and contribution to the institution. It is precisely they who represent the custodians of CANU’s institutional memory and carry a significant part of the burden of the functioning of the highest state institution in the field of science and culture.
Therefore, the CCE publicly calls on the CANU Presidency to recognise the importance of the work of its employees and align their salaries with Montenegrin laws and standards, and if budgetary limitations exist, to apply them to their own more than generous fees.
Sara Čabarkapa, Programme Coordinator for Active Citizenship