Disputed interest period on "Dakićevci" amounts: Some former workers received less than their colleagues, institutions without answers

A group of 155 former employees of "Radoje Dakić" and their heirs have determined that they received around 5.000 euros less than their other colleagues, they believe that their interest was calculated incorrectly, and that the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, according to which they should have received interest for the entire period from the moment the lawsuit was filed, has disappeared.

They said that they could not obtain that ruling from the law firm "Raspopović" that represented them, nor from the Commercial Court because their former company - the debtor - was in bankruptcy. They also contacted several state institutions, the Ministry of Finance, the Ombudsman, the Parliament..., but they received answers that everything had been paid to them in accordance with final judgments and the law.

Representative of this group of former workers of "Radoje Dakić", Dragan Asanović He told "Vijesti" that they have been looking for answers for two years as to why other groups of their colleagues received a larger amount and a different interest calculation than them, but that they only received a lie.

They state that the "Prelević" law firm enabled the second group of workers to have interest calculated from the date the lawsuit was filed, but that for years they have been unable to obtain the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR).

The "Prelević" Law Office, which represented around 400 former employees of "Radoje Dakić" in civil proceedings and enforcement proceedings before the Basic Court in Podgorica, and later in bankruptcy proceedings before the Commercial Court, before the Constitutional Court and the ECHR in Strasbourg, said that the group they represented had been paid the principal and interest until the day bankruptcy was introduced.

The law firm states that the European Court of Human Rights did not accept their opinion that interest should be calculated until the moment of payment, i.e. for the duration of the bankruptcy, but accepted the Government's position that it should be calculated until the bankruptcy is declared. They filed a complaint with the Directorate for Monitoring the Implementation of ECHR Decisions about this position, but it was not accepted, so only interest was paid until the bankruptcy is declared.

They also point out that the Basic Court's judgment from 2005 and the settlement from 2010, in addition to the principal amount of the claim (unpaid net personal income), also awarded statutory default interest on those amounts, starting from June 1, 2003.

"The court settlement included 7 more personal incomes for the period from 01. 06. 2003 to 31. 12. 2003, and statutory default interest was also awarded on this amount starting from 01. 01. 2004. Therefore, according to both court decisions, the period from 01. 01. 1997 to 31. 12. 2003 was included. After the opening of bankruptcy proceedings against "RD", we calculated the statutory default interest with the date of opening of bankruptcy proceedings on 19. 12. 2016 and we reported the claim thus determined (principal + interest until the date of the introduction of bankruptcy on 19. 12. 2016) in the bankruptcy proceedings as a separate/secured claim. By selling the real estate of the bankruptcy debtor "RD", most of the claims (principal + interest) were settled/paid according to the judgment workers in bankruptcy proceedings approximately 95%. The remainder of the unpaid claim with interest was paid to our clients by the Government of Montenegro, the Ministry of Finance, pursuant to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg No. 8318/20. In the aforementioned judgment of the ECHR in Strasbourg, the Government's position was accepted and the payment of statutory default interest was ordered until the date of opening of bankruptcy proceedings. We filed the only possible legal remedy against this decision of the ECHR, we sent our objections to the Council of Ministers of the EU, the Directorate for Monitoring the Implementation of ECHR Decisions with a request for interpretation and modification of the decision in the part relating to default interest. However, the Council, i.e. the Directorate informed us that the contested decision of the ECHR in Strasbourg has been sufficiently implemented by the Montenegrin authorities, and that further intervention is not necessary and required," the law firm "Prelević" stated.

They also point out that in order to settle claims under the court settlement from 2010, and based on the established case law of the ECHR in Strasbourg, the Government adopted a Decision - Action Plan and provided funds for the payment of this claim.

“With the payment and implementation of the Action Plan, our clients were paid the amount of the basic claim with the associated default interest until the date of opening the bankruptcy proceedings on 19. 12. 2016. In both cases, as the attorneys for some of the workers, we requested the payment of the statutory default interest from the date determined by the court decision, until the date of payment. However, the payment was made with the calculation of interest until the date of opening the bankruptcy proceedings on 19. 12. 2016, with an explanation and reference to Article 87, paragraph 2 of the Bankruptcy Law, according to which the calculation of statutory interest ceases on the date of opening the bankruptcy proceedings. As I mentioned above, after the decision of the court in Strasbourg, we sent objections to the Council and the EU Directorate, but without success. Our request to pay the statutory interest during the bankruptcy proceedings in the period from 19. 12. 2016 until the date of payment was rejected. I also point out that we are in two constitutional court proceedings, under Constitutional Appeals "We have achieved in favor of our clients and the Government of Montenegro has paid the amounts of 2.000 euros to each worker for non-pecuniary damage, i.e. violation of the right to trial within a reasonable time and violation of the right to peaceful enjoyment of property," the law firm stated.

More than half of former workers died before payment was made

Around 1.800 former employees of “Radoje Dakić”, through several law firms, sued the company for 77 unpaid salaries for the period from 1997 to 2003. The Basic Court ruled in favor of the employees in 2005, but the company’s accounts were frozen. Some groups of creditors managed to collect their debts through seized assets, until bankruptcy was introduced in 2016. This was followed by proceedings before higher instances of domestic courts and all the way to the Court in Strasbourg, according to whose ruling payments were made in 2024 and 2025.

During the two decades of waiting for justice, more than half of the workers who filed lawsuits for wages from 1997 have died. Their claims have been paid to their heirs. Some of the lawyers who represented them have also died, as have members of the company's management and bankruptcy administrations.