Rmandić is on hunger strike in the ŽPCG building: "Legal violence turned into mobbing"

One of the organizers and founders of the NGO "Train through Montenegro", Mirko Rmandić, started a hunger strike this morning in the Administrative Building of the Railway Transport of Montenegro in Podgorica and claims that one of his basic human rights - the right to work - is being threatened.

He said that he decided on that move in order to try to draw attention to events that are important in the railway system, and after addressing, among others, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Capital Investments, as well as the Minister of Finance and Social Welfare.

Rmandić said that some people in the Ministry of Capital Investments did not like his story about the threat to the safety of railway traffic and "numerous omissions", adding that personnel allocations were made that were not in accordance with the law and the statute of ŽPCG.

He was detained by the police at the end of December, because they allegedly found "three puppies of a very expensive dog breed and medicines" in the cabin of the train conductor, which runs between Montenegro and Serbia. After hearing Rmandić, the on-duty basic state prosecutor assessed that there were no elements of a criminal offense in his actions.

Rmandić claims that he is a "victim of legal violence" by the management of ŽPCG, which is why, as he said, he turned to the Labor Inspectorate several times.

"My civil right to work and the employment relationship are threatened. Every answer and every reaction of the management towards me turned into legal violence, which, in the end, turned into aggressive mobbing. The Labor Law and the Collective Agreement were brutally violated, with a drastic violation of the Constitution of Montenegro regarding my individual civil rights, let them be the last case of this kind in Montenegro. I want my victim to encourage the workers to speak up, the authorities in charge of defending the constitutional order to act in accordance with the highest legal and legal acts, and ordinary people to be encouraged and to provide active democratic resistance to lawlessness at all levels in public administration and the state," said Rmandić in a written statement.

"Due to my activities in the NGO sector, in one of the most active NGOs in the country, 'Train through Montenegro', I am permanently exposed to intrigues, persecution, violation of personal and labor rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws. Persecution for the truth and persecution because I will not remain silent - that's the bottom line of what's happening to me. This is how my professional degradation by various 'liberators' began and spiraled out of control after the last national elections. I note that I myself voted for the opposition for 30 years, from 1990, until the fall of the DPS . But that's still no reason to turn a blind eye and keep silent about the truth. I like a lot of things, but I like the truth the most," he added.

Rmandić said that he was "robbed of his job" and offered a "humiliating work engagement", all because of his political views.

"My professional degradation culminated after the beginning of my political engagement in the leadership bodies of the Svetosava Serbian List in Podgorica and at the level of Montenegro. My workplace was taken away from me by the new 'democratic' authorities and their structures on the railway and I was offered a humiliating work engagement , a few weeks after I started publicly expressing political views that neither the former nor the current government likes, that is, their followers who have occupied leadership positions, based only on party or clan affiliation," he concluded in a written statement.

"Vijesti" sent questions to ŽPCG and are expecting answers regarding Rmandić's claims.

Made three requests

Rmandic says that he will not end his hunger strike until his three main conditions are met. "And I will not leave here, even if it were the last hours of my physical survival," he said.

He says that individuals in the management of ŽPCG, as well as the Railway Administration, and in the Ministry of Capital Investments, tried to deny his rights "by trying to change the annex to my contract, to assign me to another job, which I am not interested in".

"When I previously transferred from another job to the current one, I made a gentlemanly agreement with the executive director to let me do my job, and I gave up the position with the seventh degree of professional shift. Now they know that I am physically unable to fulfill the obligations stipulated by the work the place they offer me. Even during my annual vacation, they harassed me and sent an annex to the contract home, trying to put me in a situation where I would leave the company myself. I will not allow them to do that," he said.

He is seeking the dismissal of the executive director of ŽPCG, the director of international traffic in that company, the state secretary of the Ministry of Interior, the director of the Directorate for Railway Traffic, the head of one of the services in the same ministry and the director of the Railway Administration.

"The third request is to form an independent commission, in which there would be one of the representatives of the NGO 'Vozom kruna Gora', and if it is established that there is one point that the NGO established, which is not correct, I will apologize to everyone, I will withdraw from this place I will never advertise again. I will certainly not give up on these three demands," Rmandić concluded.