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By:
Ardit Kika
- April 2, 2026 19:30 am
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The deputies of the previous legislature, whose mandate ended before the new year, in addition to the transitional allowance, have also received a 13th salary. The Government's decision has not been respected for them, in which one of the criteria was the necessity that public employees in order to benefit from the 13th salary must be on the payroll for the month of March, which the former deputies are not. And this criterion has been respected for many citizens who worked during 2025, but retired at the beginning of the year. They have not received a 13th salary
The distribution of the 13th month salary for public sector employees has sparked numerous reactions.
The executive has been criticized for leaving out the private sector, as well as for injustice within the public itself.
The 13th salary was also awarded to the deputies of the 9th legislature, who were paid for almost a year without doing any work.
Their mandate ended at the end of last year.
And despite the government decision of March 30 stipulating that in order to receive the 13th salary, an employee must be on the payroll of March 2026, they were awarded this additional salary. They received it together with the transitional allowance, which is due to former MPs based on their request.
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"The full thirteenth (13) salary belongs to all employees with a primary salary, according to the March 2026 payroll, who are employed full-time and who have been employed during the entire last twelve (12) months in a budgetary organization," states point 3 of the Government's decision on this issue.
The MPs who were re-elected in the December 28 elections also received their 13th salary.
While the criterion of being on the payroll of March 2026 was not taken into account for former MPs, for recently retired employees, it was.
One of them is Agron Bislimi, who was an employee of the Judicial Council until February 2026 and is now not part of the group of thousands of people who have received the 13th salary.
He expressed disappointment that he did not receive this salary, especially after Prime Minister Albin Kurti promised this as a reward for the work done in 2025.
"Until February 1, 2026, I worked regularly without interruption. On February 2, 2026, I retired. Now, based on the Prime Minister's statement that anyone who works for 12 months, a regular employee, receives the 13th salary, I also worked for one more month in 2026, and now the Prime Minister himself, who gave the statement about the 13th salary, knows why he did not include it," said Bislimi.
Bislimi calls the fact that he did not receive the long-awaited public sector salary discrimination.
"The Prime Minister's own statement that whoever has 12 months of full salary in 2025 gets it, I'm spending another month in 2026 and I won't even get my 13th salary, what greater discrimination is there?!" he said.
And the head of AAK deputies, Besnik Tahiri, said that providing this salary is not intended to alleviate poverty or reduce inequality.
"The 13th salary for the public sector for 80 thousand people is neither intended to alleviate poverty nor reduce inequality, it is only an action that stemmed from a pre-election pledge and that, knowing that we may go to the elections, could have an impact on the vote. I say to all members of the Government, it is decided to distribute the 13th salary to the public sector and not to help the private sector," said Tahiri.
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The 13th salary for the public sector is being implemented
The Government has not responded to KOHA's questions regarding the non-inclusion in the list for the 13th salary of some people who worked throughout 2025 and are now retired, such as the case of Agron Bislimi.
At the beginning of the week, at a Government meeting, Prime Minister Kurti said that they are preparing an anti-inflation package, which will also help private sector workers.
The Government's decision to distribute the 13th salary to around 85 public sector employees will cost the state budget approximately 75 million euros.
The Government's decision on this measure has also been criticized by civil society and trade unions.
The GAP Institute said that the Government should provide support without exception to those with lower salaries.
Blendi Hasaj, director of the GAP Institute, said a few days ago that a more adequate intervention would be to implement such a measure for all employees in the economy with lower wages.
According to him, recent studies in Kosovo show that workers in the public sector are paid about 31 percent more per hour than those in the private sector.
"There has been ongoing criticism that our public administration is overloaded with employees, a problem that has not been addressed at all by the Kurti Government. Therefore, the problem of inflation in recent months appears to affect private sector employees much more. A much more adequate intervention than this, since the Government has already decided to implement such a measure, would be to help all employees in the economy with lower salaries. Including employees in the private and public sectors," Hasaj said on March 30.
The president of the Independent Private Sector Union of Kosovo (SPSPK), Jusuf Azemi, said that private sector workers should also be included in this decision, as they fill the state coffers.
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The 13th salary for the public sector is considered discrimination for the private sector
"We are the workers who produce, while public sector workers are the ones who spend. And let's not be ironic: we enjoy the 13th salary for these workers, but we have extremely great pressure from private sector workers: 'why do they get it and we don't?', that is, what distinguishes us from public sector workers?" Azemi said on March 30.
Opposition parties and MPs have also criticized the Government, calling the decision to allocate the 13th month salary only to the public sector discriminatory.
