Severance payments for all 975 employees of Azotara

The president of the Autonomous Trade Union at Azotara Pancevo, Gradisa Zivanovic, said this Thursday, July 26, 2018, that the severance payments due to the initiation of bankruptcy payments in the factory would be paid to all 975 employees, among which are the 181 workers hired on January 1, 2014, when the Law on the Ban on Employment came into effect.

On July 25, state representatives tried to dispute the right to severance payments for these 181 workers that the factory had to employ permanently after two years of having them employed temporarily, on the exact day of the coming into effect of the said law.

– As those workers were needed, we couldn’t let them go. Instead, they were hired permanently – Zivanovic told Beta.

Following a meeting of the Work Group for the factory at the Ministry of Energy, he said that an agreement had been reached for those workers and the 68 workers meeting at least one of the requirements for retirement to be paid severance packages too.

– The workers meeting one of the retirement conditions will be paid severance packages as per the factory’s Collective Contract, which will be slightly lower than those paid to other employees – Zivanovic said.

The choosing of one of the three severance package models ended on July 27, and the majority of the workers, according to him, had picked the model of one third of the employee’s salary per year of service.

The other two models are EUR 200 per year of service and six average salaries in Serbia for employees with over 15 years of service.

Under the first and the second model, the severance payment mustn’t exceed EUR 8,000.

As Zivanovic said, the Ministry of Economy also approved an additional amount of EUR 100 per year of service, under the condition of the severance payment not exceeding EUR 12,000.

Zivanovic said that plenty of Azotara employees were on vacation at the moment and that the factory’s operations were being brought to a close.

Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic previously said that the factory would be conserved and put up for sale.

The decision on the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings should be reached by the Commercial Court of Pancevo on August 10, the date of the scheduled hearing concerning the deliberation of the reasons for bankruptcy, as suggested by the International Monetary Fund due to the factory’s debts, which amount to over EUR 200 million.

HIP-AZOTARA d.o.o. Pančevo

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Privredni sud u Pančevu

Autonomous Trade Union of Azotara

Gradisa Zivanovic

bankruptcy proceedings in Azotara

Aleksandar Antic

privatization of HIP Azotara

social program for HIP Azotara workers