RS Railways Pay for Unemployed Workers

(Patria) - At the beginning of last year, "Željeznice Republike Srpske" (ŽRS) employee Mladen Panić went to serve a one-year prison sentence for causing a traffic accident in which his friend died.

Although he should have been fired due to the length of his sentence, his job was waiting for him when he returned. ŽRS never received notification of the sentence, so the employees in Doboj pretended not to know where their colleague was. Panić's boss and best man, Mirko Ostojić, falsely justified his absences from work – he accepted sick leave certificates and granted him annual leave to justify his months-long absence. This allowed Panić to keep both his job and his salary.

For years, Republika Srpska has been borrowing from international creditors to get ŽRS back on its feet. A significant portion of this money is intended for severance pay when laying off surplus workers, while the company simultaneously retains and pays workers who almost never show up for work.

One of them is Rajo Šiljak from Istočno Sarajevo. He has been employed at ŽRS for a long time, but is rarely at his workplace in Doboj. His superiors could not explain to a journalist from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) with certainty what exactly he does and where. Although everyone knows he is not regularly at work, they expect the problem to resolve itself – when Šiljak retires.

In the meantime, he could continue to receive his salary and a monthly travel allowance from Istočno Sarajevo to Doboj, where his colleague/superior registers him as present at work every day.

Panić – Present

Twenty-five-year-old Mladen Panić caused a major accident six years ago. On his way back from a night out, he lost control of the vehicle in which nine other young people were. One of them died at the time.

The District Court in Doboj sentenced Panić to one year in prison, which should have resulted in his dismissal. Namely, according to the Labor Law of Republika Srpska, employment must be terminated if an employee is sentenced to a prison term longer than six months, but ŽRS did not do so in this case. Instead of bringing the verdict to the company, Panić requested a year of unpaid leave. Since his request was denied, he took sick leave and went to serve his sentence in Istočno Sarajevo, and his best man and boss, Mirko Ostojić, head of the Train Traction Section in Doboj, helped him keep his job. During his time in prison, he came home for a few days every month.

A doctor from the Health Center in Doboj gave him sick leave, so Panić had justified absences from work for three months. The management of the Health Center refused to answer CIN whether the doctor who gave Panić sick leave knew he was in prison and on what grounds he was sent on sick leave.

After that, Ostojić also signed a decision for Panić's annual leave and carried-over days from the previous year. As all of this was not enough to cover his time in prison, he was falsely reported as present at work for another two months.

However, in a conversation with CIN, Novo Panić, Mladen's father and Ostojić's superior, took full responsibility for these actions. He is the director of the Train Traction Sector, which manages all work units located in cities across Republika Srpska.

When asked if he knew this was a violation of the law, Panić Sr. briefly replied to the CIN journalist: "Yes."

Although both are aware that they have crossed legal boundaries, they say they did so to help Mladen pay off the debts he incurred due to paying compensation for the accident he caused six years ago.

"If that life was saved, that child's, so that they enter life at 22 with a burden of 100,000 marks, (...) then, in my opinion, it is worth breaking everything – the law and every devil," says Mirko Ostojić.

Meanwhile, Mladen Panić received an amnesty from the Basic Court in Doboj, so with early release, he left prison after seven and a half months and returned to work. He did not wish to speak to CIN.

One-Member Commission

About ten days after Mladen returned to work, ŽRS found out about the fraud thanks to an anonymous report. A disciplinary procedure was initiated, and the sector managed by Mladen's father, Novo Panić, was tasked with determining who was responsible and how they would be punished.

Since he could not do it alone, Panić authorized his deputy, Zoran Vasiljević, who assessed it as a "minor violation of work duties."

"They thereby determined the course and outcome of the procedure, because different disciplinary measures are foreseen for a more serious violation of work duties and different ones for a minor one," lawyer Željko Rašević explained to CIN.

The manager decides on sanctions for such an offense in ŽRS, so Panić had to authorize someone else to do it for him. The second deputy, Predrag Pecikoza, decided that Ostojić would have ten percent deducted from two salaries, and another responsible person, the record-keeper Branko Pašalić, received a written warning in his work unit. The Panićs were not disciplined for their actions.

Novo Panić does not consider himself responsible: "It's like saying the general director is also responsible. (...) As a director, I don't have to know that. As a parent, I have to know, but I don't even have to know that if we are not on good terms. But we are on good terms, I can't say we are not."

ŽRS was damaged by this fraud in the amount of 5,898 KM, and the damage was paid by Ostojić, Pašalić, and Mladen Panić. The Train Traction Sector, managed by Mladen's father, tried to reduce the amount of damage to 2,677 marks, which was not accepted.

The acting general director of ŽRS, Zoran Ilinčić, says that the company currently has no way to more strictly sanction violations of the Labor Law of Republika Srpska in cases where it learns about them later.

Sit and Be Quiet

According to data from the competent ministry, ŽRS concluded 2018 with an accumulated loss of 111.5 million marks. It spends about 38 million marks annually on workers' salaries and contributions.

Representatives of the company's Trade Union have been publicly stating for years that ŽRS has employees who do not come to work but receive a salary.

"If there is no money, then we all bear the burden together. No money – no waste, no expenses. This is a classic expense for us – that someone can be registered without coming," says Simo Cvjetković, president of the Independent Trade Union of Train Drivers of ŽRS, for CIN.

Some former and current members of the Management also say that there are many such cases.

New Borrowing

Last year, Republika Srpska took out a 100 million mark loan from the World Bank to improve the financial sustainability and restructure ŽRS. Seven million marks are allocated for reducing the number of workers, i.e., for their severance pay and retraining. The Government of Republika Srpska and ŽRS will repay this loan over the next 32 years.

Draženko Todorović was the executive director of Operations and a member of the Management until 2015. Although he says this problem is common knowledge, he did nothing to solve it. "Well, I don't pay the salary, I'm not the owner of the company."

The majority owner of the company is Republika Srpska, which borrows money to help this company reduce its losses. In addition, the Government of Republika Srpska provides about 25 million KM annually for the maintenance of ŽRS. The owners of the company elect a Supervisory Board, which appoints the Management and obliges it by statute to act in the interest of the company.

One of the three members of the Management, acting executive director Dragan Subašić, tells CIN that it is difficult to monitor employees of such a large company. He did nothing to stop the abuse, even in cases he was aware of. His predecessors did not do so either.

Rajo Šiljak has about twenty years of service at ŽRS. He lives in Istočno Sarajevo, and his workplace is in Doboj. He is an independent expert associate in the Train Traction Sector, and his boss is Novo Panić.

Panić says he rarely sees him, although he regularly registers his arrival at work. Šiljak comes to Doboj on average once a month, and only to the Administration building, not to his workplace.

Four years ago, Šiljak agreed with the former general director Dragan Savanović to be the "communication person" for the narrow-gauge railway in Višegrad.

"I needed a person who would communicate regarding the narrow-gauge railway with tourism organizations and local authorities," Savanović explained his decision.

Former executive director of Operations, Draženko Todorović, signed an authorization stating this. However, an authorization is not a document that resolves the assignment of workers to another workplace in labor law, and it cannot exclude the worker's obligation to come to the workplace where they are assigned by contract, explains lawyer Rašević: "Permanent assignments require the conclusion of an agreement, or an annex to the agreement."

However, Šiljak's employment contract has not been changed, so Panić's office in Doboj continued to keep records of his (non)attendance at work. This is how it has been until today.

"Only that administration they kept remained, but I am here and they know – Draženko knows, Savanović knows too," says Šiljak. He is adamant that he only arranges his business with the executive and general directors.

While acting general director Ilinčić believes that Šiljak works in Doboj, unaware that he also has duties in Višegrad, acting executive director Subašić knows that he rarely comes to work, but he overlooks it:

"Sometimes the pie costs more than the baking pan, so you tell him to sit there and be quiet, go away, leave me alone, because it's easier for you to give him that salary, regardless of everything, than to pay him travel expenses from Sarajevo to Doboj."

However, the CIN journalist discovered that ŽRS still pays Rajo Šiljak for travel to a job he doesn't go to. In addition to a salary of 1,200 marks, he also receives 150 marks for travel expenses from Istočno Sarajevo to Doboj.

In the next few months, he will meet the requirements for retirement, and Subašić will wait for the problem to be resolved in this way: "If everyone has tolerated him all these years, this of his, please, leave me alone so I can also tolerate this and say goodbye to him."