Category: Persecution
Period: from Mar 2025
Outcome: No one investigated (as of 23 Sep 2026)
While the faculties were under student blockade, the caretaker Government amended the regulation on work norms on 24 March 2025, leaving five hours a week for research instead of 20, so that teaching staff, with no classes being held, received about an eighth of their salary. The Ministry of Education claimed the aim was not punishment, while academic initiatives described the regulation as a “party-motivated act of retaliation” for supporting the students. The Court of Appeal in Novi Sad found that automatically withholding part of salaries was unlawful, and the Government revoked the regulation on 30 July 2026.
While faculties were under student blockade, most professors did not receive the second part of their February salary in March 2025; before that, the Ministry of Education had sent letters to deans asking whether classes and exams were being held. The University of Belgrade replied that it refused to serve as an instrument of pressure on students.
On 24 March 2025, the caretaker Government decided that institutions under blockade would receive only part of the money for teaching staff salaries, and amended the regulation on work norms: of a 40-hour working week, five hours instead of 20 were left for research, and 35 for teaching (“Regulation 5/35”). Since no classes were being held, teaching staff received about an eighth of their salary.
Vladimir Mihić, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, said that for him this meant about 20.000 dinars a month and that many colleagues were already in debt. The Ministry of Education claimed the aim was not punishment but bringing pay in line with actual work needs.
Teaching staff, and then the University of Belgrade with more than 2,300 professors, asked the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of the decree, while SANU committees called for it to be revoked urgently.
In Novi Sad, professors blocked a roundabout, and from 9 to 26 June 2025 they blocked the intersection by the Government building; they ended the blockade because, in their words, the Government treated the decree as something to be "frozen" rather than repealed. According to the Free University of Novi Sad, the outstanding pay for March–June was paid out by the end of 2025.
The Basic Court in Novi Sad ruled in favour of two employees who had sued the Faculty of Philosophy, and, according to Autonomija, the Court of Appeal in Novi Sad found that automatically withholding part of salaries solely on the basis of a letter from the Ministry was unlawful, because pay cannot be cut without an individual decision and disciplinary proceedings.
The Government revoked the regulation on 30 July 2026, and the Ministry called it a temporary measure; academic initiatives described it as a “party-motivated act of retaliation” for supporting the students.