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"We don't work without pay"/ Why is Trepça facing financial difficulties again?

2024-07-31 16:39:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"We don't work without pay"/ Why is Trepça facing

For 22 days, the workers of the metallurgical plant Trepça in Mitrovica have stopped working. Without the salary for the month of June and without daily allowances since the beginning of July, the representatives of the miners of Trepca say that the combine is facing mismanagement and lack of investments.

Regarding the created situation, on July 31, the union of Trepça workers held a meeting with miners, in which the chief executive of the combine, Bashkim Kurti, also participated.

"Without receiving wages and food allowances, the miners refuse to enter and work in the mine, because they risk their health," Ibrahim Januzi, head of the Trepca Workers' Union, told Radio Free Europe.

A total of 1,200 miners work in Trepça, while their average salary, according to Jonuz, is 740 euros. According to the latest KAS data, the average salary in the public and private sector in Kosovo is 521 euros.

The management of Trepça justifies the non-execution of salaries with a lack of financial means and a drop in production.

The head of Trepça, Kurti, says that the financial situation of the metallurgical combine is aggravated by the low amount of production and sale of products.

He indicated that Trepça has asked the Government of Kosovo for additional means to enable a solution, but adds that they have not received any concrete answer.
Kurti has not given any time limit on when workers' salaries can be executed.

"There is no other reason why salaries have not been paid, it is simply a lack of funds. And the lack of funds comes from the lack of production and sale of the produced product", he says for REL.

The main products that Trepça produces are lead and zinc concentrates containing silver, gold and other elements. The Stantërgu mine, located in the Mitrovica region, is the main source of ore extraction.

Until the publication of this article, the Government of Kosovo did not respond to REL's question whether it plans to allocate financial assistance to Trepça for the wages of the workers of the combine.

The Trepça metallurgical complex is a joint-stock company and 80 percent of the shares belong to the Government of Kosovo, while 20 percent belong to the employees of this company.

New problems, old difficulties

In a similar situation, the miners of Trepca have found themselves several times during the past year.

At the end of October 2023, for ten consecutive days they went on strike inside the mine precisely because of the non-realization of wages and complaints about working conditions. They don't have health or life insurance - which they have repeatedly asked for. Meanwhile, they show that they often lack work clothes, such as helmets and light bulbs, which they were sometimes forced to buy on their own.

In January of this year, 13 miners of the Trepça metallurgical combine suffered injuries during the transportation of sulfuric acid to the work premises and received treatment at the Mitrovica General Hospital.

Trepca's decades-long financial difficulties

Trepca's machines are over 50 years old and their lack of maintenance has caused constant problems. The decline in production had already started in the 90s when the then regime of Serbia had closed almost all enterprises and institutions in the country.

However, since the end of the war in 1999, Trepça has never been able to be put into the function of economic development.

The current government, in several cases, has promised to make Trepça a "profitable enterprise". For investments in this combine, in 2023, the Government of Kosovo approved a loan of 20 million euros. However, these financial means have not been executed yet.

"There are still some issues left to be fixed and I believe that by the end of this year, these tools will be executed", said the head of Trepça, Bashkim Kurti, without specifying what issues were in question.

Trepça is expected to pass under the Sovereign Fund of the Government of Kosovo, which will take ownership of all the country's strategic assets, to then invest in increasing their value.

The law on the Sovereign Fund was approved at the end of last year, but the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Democratic Party of Kosovo have sent this law for evaluation to the Constitutional Court./ REL