The Labor Inspection found 33 illegal employments in the Post Office of Montenegro, while all appeals against these decisions of the inspection were rejected by the second-instance body of the Ministry of Labour, the Labor Inspection informed "News".
Among the illegally employed are several managers and sector directors in this state-owned enterprise. "Vijesti" announced in June that the labor inspection is conducting extensive employment controls at the Post Office, as well as that more than a dozen work engagements are disputed.
"The labor inspectorate found irregularities related to the employment of 33 persons without conducting a public advertising procedure, which is contrary to Article 24 of the Labor Law. In accordance with that, the Labor Inspectorate issued decisions ordering the subject of supervision to eliminate the aforementioned irregularities. Appeals were filed against the decisions of the acting inspectors, but they were rejected by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue as unfounded. The inspectors will continue their actions in order to implement the adopted decisions and supervise the elimination of irregularities", the Labor Inspectorate answered the questions of "Vijesti" regarding this case.
According to "Vijesti" information, among the persons employed at the Post Office in these controversial ways are several current managers, as well as members of their families and relatives of state officials.
As "Vijesti" previously wrote, the most common cause of established illegalities was employment without advertising vacancies, as well as hiring employees from private companies contrary to the law, because only employees who already work in the public sector can be hired in state-owned companies without advertising jobs. sector at the state or municipal level.
"Failure to report a vacancy, as well as failure to advertise it, affects access to the labor market, limits the availability of jobs to all interested parties, the principle of competition and the transparency of the employment procedure. The foregoing exactly defines the illegality of the employment relationship and cannot be taken into consideration as legal because the previous employers were not local self-government bodies and the state of Montenegro, so the takeover carried out in accordance with this procedure results in the illegality of the employment relationship", it was stated in one of the reports of the Labor Inspectorate. to the control carried out at the Post Office.
This means that people were employed without advertising through the Employment Office, but directly without invitations and criteria, as well as that they moved from the private sector to jobs mostly in the Post office for significantly higher wages, although such a takeover is only possible from the public sector . Also, in these cases, no vacancies were announced through the Employment Office.
According to the Law, when the inspection determines illegal employment, the employer must terminate that employment relationship, and that "employee" would have to return all the money he received on the basis of that illegal employment.
When the "News" announced in June that the labor inspection had discovered the first cases of illegal employment in this state-owned company, the Post responded by claiming that the claims about illegal employment were "absolutely without foundation in Article 24 of the Labor Law, which the labor inspection refers to." .
"It is indicative that in this kind of behavior of the Post of Montenegro, which dates back to before the arrival of the new management, the labor inspection did not find the deficiencies that it is now publicly pointing out even before the administrative procedure was completed," the Post claimed at the time.
According to the financial report, the Post had 1.189 employees last year, which is two hundred more than in 2020.
Stojan Sjekloća, a member of the Board of Directors of the Post Office, called for a more responsible and high-quality management of personnel policy "without dominant political affiliation and nepotism, which would stop the practice of the previous government".
"I was in the minority when proposing to publish an advertisement for the recruitment of workers in cooperation with the Employment Agency. We are currently reading the consequences through the findings of the Labor Inspection. I recommend that the competent state institutions approach the verification of the work and operations of the Post of Montenegro. All the more because the third negative opinion of the external auditor was recently received. I suggest to start with the members of the Board of Directors and their CVs, and to certainly include numerous dubious diplomas", Sjekloća said at the time.
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