Ministry of Economy to Pay Claims to Former "Sarabon" Workers

(Patria) - Based on the friendly settlement concluded between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the representatives of the appellants/former workers of the company "Sarabon", to which the Government of Sarajevo Canton gave its consent, the European Court of Human Rights in the case of 16 applicants/workers of the company "Sarabon" made a decision obliging the Government of SC to pay compensation for non-material damage incurred due to the non-collection of workers' claims, because the bankruptcy proceedings before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo were not concluded within a reasonable time.

The Government of Sarajevo Canton is obliged to pay amounts of EUR 1,000 to each appellant, as well as to cover court costs in the amount of EUR 250 for each of them.

"The Ministry of Economy of SC has undertaken the obligation to make the aforementioned payments, and after the conditions for payment were met, it contacted the representatives of the appellants/former workers of "Sarabon" to inform them to submit the necessary data for the payment. Once the data is duly submitted to the Ministry, it will make the payments in the manner requested by the letter of July 15 this year, and later by urgency, according to the aforementioned Decisions, and thus the obligations of the Ministry of Economy of SC in this matter will be fulfilled," explained the Minister of Economy of Sarajevo Canton, Adnan Delić.

As a reminder, we note that the company "Sarabon" was privatized in 2000, and the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo confirmed its validity in 2010 and annulled the Decision of the Cantonal Privatization Agency on the termination of the privatization agreement. Therefore, since 2000, the company "Sarabon" has been wholly owned by individuals, and thus there is no legal basis for the workers' claims that arose in the period after privatization to be charged to the budget of Sarajevo Canton.

"You will recall that some time ago we published information about the company "Satex", whose privatization was also unsuccessful, and the assets of this company were sold off, yet several years after privatization, due to the negligence of those who managed the budget of Sarajevo Canton, salaries were paid for four workers of this company from the budget for several years. The company was privately owned, and the workers received salaries from the budget. The representatives of 16 former workers of "Sarabon" are seeking the same thing, only retroactively. Given that "Sarabon" is a joint-stock company in private ownership, for which bankruptcy proceedings have been pending before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo since 2006, the workers' claim against the Government of Sarajevo Canton is completely unfounded, and there is no way for the workers' claims made in the bankruptcy proceedings to be collected from the budget of Sarajevo Canton," Minister Delić stated categorically.

We note that upon submission of the requested data, the Ministry of Economy of SC will make the payments in the manner and amounts as prescribed by the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, and thus all obligations of the Ministry of Economy of SC will be fulfilled, which has not been responsible for the operations and business of "Sarabon" since 2000, since the privatization of the economic entity "Sarabon".