Energopetrol workers register 170 hours per month, but actually spend 200 or more hours at work

Before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo and the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, there are currently around 200 lawsuits filed by workers of the former Bosnian oil giant Energopetrol against this company, all due to the illegal reduction of salaries by the new owner of Energopetrol – the Croatian-Hungarian consortium INA/MOL, due to layoffs and mobbing of workers, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Adnan Novo, a Sarajevo lawyer representing the affected Energopetrol workers, stated that the courts have already issued about fifty verdicts in favor of the workers, and he hopes that the remaining verdicts will also be rendered in their favor soon.

- I am convinced that the remaining cases will also be decided in favor of the workers, whom the employer has harmed in recent years on various grounds – Novo told Patria. Some of the workers' compensation claims exceed even 50,000 KM.

The entry of the INA/MOL consortium into Energopetrol was met with great optimism, but very soon it turned out that difficult days were beginning for the workers of this former oil giant.

More than 200 workers were laid off after the new management took over the company, the salary of workers at gas stations was reduced from 1,400 KM to 600 KM, and many of them were sent to work in cities hundreds of kilometers away, which was practically unfeasible for many workers.

But that's not all. The management of Energopetrol soon plans to lay off at least 60 more workers!

A source from the news agency Patria, who is at the very top of this company, explains the entire „Energopetrol“ affair as follows:

- When the INA/MOL consortium entered Energopetrol as the majority owner, dark days began for the workers – says this interlocutor, who feared revealing his identity because he himself would end up on the layoff list.

- The new employer offered workers deemed redundant a mutual termination with severance pay. Some accepted it, and those who did not still lost their jobs, but due to „non-cooperation“ they did not receive severance pay. They are now in court awaiting a verdict.

The Patria source states that it was expected that the new owner would introduce certain changes, but no one expected the new management to treat the workers so poorly.

- For someone to be fired or transferred, the company management had to consult with the Energopetrol Workers' Council. They did that, but in a way that they lobbied Nijaz Sijočić, then president of the Council, to approve layoffs for workers, and then immediately sent him into retirement with a hefty severance package. Moreover, his son and son-in-law remained working at Energopetrol, presumably as a reward for Sijočić helping the new owner get rid of some workers – says this source.

The layoffs, while still appearing legal, says the Patria source, are orchestrated by Vesna Penava from Mostar, director of the Human Resources Service at Energopetrol.

- She is tasked with ridding the company of workers it doesn't need, but in a way that everything appears legal. However, it is clear that they cannot keep everything under control; they have made many mistakes that contain elements of criminal liability.

It is also an open secret, adds this source, that workers at Energopetrol now register 170 hours worked per month, but their actual time spent at work exceeds 200 or more hours.

That the contract for the sale of the majority stake in Energopetrol to the INA/MOL consortium was detrimental to this company was warned by experts at the very beginning of the Energopetrol sale in 2008. Recently, a court proceeding was initiated before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, in which the accused are charged with causing damage greater than 32 million KM to the company Energopetrol and the Federation of BiH, because, according to the indictment, they signed detrimental contracts during the recapitalization process with the INA/MOL consortium.

The indictment was filed against former Prime Minister of FBiH Nedžad Branković, former director of Energopetrol Namik Bušatlić, and Kasema Ćatović, lawyer Ahmed Žilić (although his opinion on the sale of Energopetrol was negative), Mirko Puljić, Sead Kreso, Safet Proho, Anka Šešlija, and Alma Haseta, who at the time of the recapitalization were members of the Energopetrol Recapitalization Commission. 

Mirnes Turbo, director of the company General Servis, which after the FBiH Government is the largest minority shareholder in Energopetrol and a representative of small shareholders of Energopetrol, previously told Patria that before the recapitalization of Energopetrol by the INA/MOL consortium, shares ranged between 45 and 65 KM, and now they reach a price of barely seven KM.

MOL did not bring problems only to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Hungarians also caused tectonic disruptions in Croatia. Due to granting management rights to MOL in the Croatian oil company INA, the Supreme Court of Croatia sentenced former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to six and a half years in prison. Namely, prosecutors managed to prove that as Prime Minister of Croatia, Sanader accepted a bribe of ten million euros in exchange for the management rights of INA, which were handed over to MOL, a move that would soon prove very detrimental to the Croatian oil company.

- As for MOL, apart from being owners, they have nothing to do with Energopetrol BiH. The entire management of Energopetrol is run by management from INA Zagreb. That is some internal agreement between INA and MOL – states the Patria source.