At today’s session, the government was supposed to finally verify severance payments to dockworkers engaged in the shipyard. Last year, after the then Minister of Transport and Maritime Affairs Ivan Brajovic had submitted the Information on the shipyard’s condition, the government gave its consent for funds obtained from the sale of the company’s assets to be directed to solving the issue of redundancy, based on the social programme, and to bridging the years of service.
The employees had the same information.
“We expect the government to finally verify this decision so that 202 workers and 65 pensioners would get their money”, the chairman of the shipyard’s trade union Mladen Krivokapic told Dnevne Novine newspaper.
The trade union even sent a list containing names of employees and the amount of severance pay they should receive.
“Bearing in mind that large dock has been sold and funds provided so that the government may redirect them to address the issue of labour redundancy, the conditions were created for the implementation of the government’s conclusion No 08-2089, dated on 4 September 2015”, it was said in the material for the government’s session.
However, finance minister Rasko Konjevic sent an opinion to the transport minister Ivan Brajovic that the government’s proposal was questionable for several reasons.
“Redirecting the €4.8m for severance payments would significantly reduce the funds for the payment of taxes and social welfare contributions. Thus the employees’ service gaps would not be bridged, so they would be unable to exercise their right to retire”, Konjevic said in the letter.
He also said that the funds redirecting was contrary to the Bankruptcy Law because it defined classes of creditors and the payment priorities and that the first and second priority of claims arose from taxes and social welfare contributions.
“The proposal to assign the claims arising from taxes and the contributions actually represents writing off, which is contrary to the Law on Budget and Fiscal Responsibility. The text of the proposal does not contain any information indicating the period the employees’ service gaps were to be bridged for or the missing amount for bridging the gaps”, Konjevic said, adding that his ministry cannot approve this proposal.
