Zastava workers take protest to Belgrade

The Union of Kragujevac metal workers will submit Zastava workers’ requests to the government later today. Union members call for the extension of Zastava Employment and Education (ZZO) operations, "until an appropriate solution is found for each and every worker of the company". Zastava workers take protest to Belgrade The demands also include an increase in severance payments from EUR 250 to EUR 300 for every year of service for workers who voluntarily decide to terminate employment. The demands come in light of a government decision to shut down the ZZO, which has 4,412 workers on its pay roll, for whom it prepared the simulative redundancy package of EUR 250 for each year of employment. Union Vice-President Zoran Mihajlovic told B92 that "Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic will likely receive the union delegation, which will be good since he was one of the signatories of the agreement signed on July 30, 2001 for the establishment of the ZZO, as then finance minister." Zastava Employment and Education was created to employ Zastava factory workers made redundant following the reorganization. The company has for the past six years been subsidized by the state although its workers have not in fact been engaged in any work. “Our goal is not money, but to see the agreement respected in its entirety. The deal envisaged ZZO workers being provided with jobs within four years of the signing. It has not happened, and now, all the government is doing is offering us severance money,” Mihajlovic stressed. “Severance payments may be good for a smaller portion of workers approaching retirement, but the interest of the majority is to continue working,” he stressed. "The money Dinkic set aside for the social welfare program can be put into the creation of new jobs.” Zastava workers outside government's headquarters (FoNet)

Zastava workers take protest to Belgrade

The demands also include an increase in severance payments from EUR 250 to EUR 300 for every year of service for workers who voluntarily decide to terminate employment.

The demands come in light of a government decision to shut down the ZZO, which has 4,412 workers on its pay roll, for whom it prepared the simulative redundancy package of EUR 250 for each year of employment.

Union Vice-President Zoran Mihajlović told B92 that "Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Đelić will likely receive the union delegation, which will be good since he was one of the signatories of the agreement signed on July 30, 2001 for the establishment of the ZZO, as then finance minister."

Zastava Employment and Education was created to employ Zastava factory workers made redundant following the reorganization.

The company has for the past six years been subsidized by the state although its workers have not in fact been engaged in any work.

“Our goal is not money, but to see the agreement respected in its entirety. The deal envisaged ZZO workers being provided with jobs within four years of the signing. It has not happened, and now, all the government is doing is offering us severance money,” Mihajlović stressed.

“Severance payments may be good for a smaller portion of workers approaching retirement, but the interest of the majority is to continue working,” he stressed.

"The money Dinkić set aside for the social welfare program can be put into the creation of new jobs.”