Returned to work the same day, then sent home

On the same day that he was returned to work by the court's verdict, Denis Hot received a notice of termination of employment from his employer, "Čistoće" from Podgorica, with the explanation that the position he was assigned to was filled.

The court issued a final verdict in his case on the first of March, Hot went to work on the same day, but then he was turned away from the gate. He experienced the same thing a few days later, after he received a work contract from "Čistoća", in the then already exceeded deadline for voluntary execution of the verdict. In the meantime, he was offered an annex to the contract and, at his request, he was supposed to come to work on May 11, which he did. However, on the same day, he was served with a notice that there was no further need for his work engagement. The employer reassigned him to a position for which the systematization foresees one employee. Mihailo Popović has already been hired for that position.

"Čistoća" did not respond to "Vijesta" on the basis of which the employer previously assigned Hota to the position of independent vehicle and machinery exploitation officer, given that he knew that the position was filled. Along with the notification about the termination of the need to work, Denis Hot was also handed a decision on annual leave.

According to the Labor Law, referred to by "Čistoća" in the notice signed by the executive director Andrija Čađenović, the employer is obliged to notify the employees and the employer's trade union in writing of the need to terminate the employment relationship, no later than five days before the decision on termination is made employment relationship". Hot, however, did not receive a decision on termination of employment.

In the notice they handed to Hota, "Čistoća" referred to the 2019 Rulebook on the systematization of workplaces, according to which one executor is provided for the workplace to which he was returned, so he was dismissed.

"Since two executors were assigned to the specified workplace for an indefinite period of time, it became necessary to determine the employee whose work has ceased to be needed," the notice says.

It is added that Popović has been assigned to the position of independent officer since February 1, 2018, and that he has been in "Čistoća" since July 2011, for an indefinite period.

At the time he was employed, the executive director of "Čistoće" was his wife Daca Popović, who has been the executive director of "Zelenil" from Podgorica since February 2019.

Denis Hot has been with "Čistoća" since February 20, 2018, since that employer concluded several fixed-term contracts with him - two for three months each, one contract for 12 months and three contracts for one month. After the expiration of the last one on October 18, 2019, "Čistoća" issued a decision on the termination of the employment relationship. According to all contracts, Hot was employed as a manager in the service for the exploitation of machinery and vehicles. That workplace is recognized by the Rulebook on the organization and systematization of workplaces, so the court earlier, passing the judgment, stated that "it follows that the defendant, as an employer, had a permanent need for this type of employment".

The basic court in Podgorica recently issued a final judgment in favor of Hota, according to which the company "Čistoća" is obliged to transform his fixed-term employment contract into an indefinite-term contract, and to assign Hota to a workplace in accordance with his professional training and abilities. At the same time, "Čistoća" is obliged to compensate Hota for court costs in the amount of 625 euros within eight days from the date of finality of the verdict.

"Čistoća" then replied to "Vijesti" that "this Society will act according to the verdict within the legal deadline".

On May 12, Hot submitted an initiative to the labor inspectorate for inspection supervision at "Čistoća". Due to non-compliance with the court's decision, Hot filed a criminal complaint with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica on March 23, and on May 13, after he was informed on the day of his return to work that there was no need for his involvement, he supplemented the complaint.

"The way I lost my job is a very 'elegant' solution that Mr. Čađenović, because the need for my work ended before it even arose", he states in his statement.

He also adds that, if behavior like that of the executive director of "Cistoća" were legal, "then no employee would essentially ever return to work."

"The employer's goal would be to lose the dispute with the employee as soon as possible and apply Andrija Čađenović's method," says Hot.

The capital recently paid several thousand euros after Miodrag Đukanović, an employee of the Protection and Rescue Service, filed a complaint against the then commander, now the executive director of "Čistoća", for abuse at work. Đukanović spent four years in the courts, proving that as a firefighter-rescuer, leader of the group, he was a victim of mobbing by former commander Andrija Čađenović. With a final judgment in favor of Đukanović, Čađenović was declared a mobster.

Several reports were previously filed against Čađenović and other persons on suspicion of abusing their official position. The management of "Cistoća" rejected such claims.

Members of the Board of Directors violated the law

Based on Denis Hot's initiative, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption recently established that the member of the Board of Directors of Podgorica "Čistoća" Veselin Mijović violated the Law on Prevention of Corruption because, among other things, he did not report several thousand euros of income.

Also on Hot's initiative, the Agency previously established that other members of the Board of Directors of that city company - Đuro Šaban, Isen Gaši and Miodrag Kostić - had violated the law.