RTCG employees' union: 650 employees in the most vulnerable category, instead of an increase, want a decrease in coefficients

More than 80 percent of RTCG employees belong to the most vulnerable category of employees in that media company.

This is stated in the open letter sent by the Trade Union of Employees RTCG to the Prime Minister of Montenegro, the Parliament, the Government and the Ministry of Finance.

The letter states that the reason for the appeal is the difficult financial situation in which the employees find themselves, because for the fourth month no agreement has been reached with the management on salary increases in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry of Finance related to the salaries of employees in the public sector.

"As is known, it is a measure that attempts to remedy the consequences of the inflationary impact on the most vulnerable category of employees (category D). Around 650 employees who belong to this category work in RTCG".

General Director of RTCG Boris Raonic said at the previous session of the Council that he is optimistic that an agreement will be reached this week, as well as that they have a big administrative job ahead of them because they need to conclude 740 new employment contracts, which is how many employees are employed in that media company.

The Union states that they have an absurd situation, because the Government has approved an increase of more than 20 percent for category D workers in the public sector, to which the RTCG also belongs, but, as they claim, due to the constant obstructions of the management, which daily invents new excuses in communication with the Union, requirements and conditions, the agreement does not reach.

"After the initial ignoring of our requests for salary increases starting from January of the current year, which we initiated back in November of the previous year, today we are faced with constant delaying of negotiations, faking them and attempts to create discord among employees".

They claim that on April 4, at the Trade Union Assembly, which was attended by some members of the RTCG Council and representatives of the Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro, Raonic publicly said that the management allocated a million euros for the increase this year, and then confirmed this at the session of the RTCG Council -a in the broadcast on RTCG2 on April 13 of this year.

"At that session, a message was sent to the public about a unique solution for both unions and management, with minimal corrections and a recommendation to reach an agreement immediately. However, the general director misled both the public of Montenegro and the employees of RTCG. Instead of D category employees who in RTCG, they create a salary program every day that ranges from the minimum wage to below the average Montenegrin salary, felt the benefits of salary increases according to the clear recommendations of the Ministry of Finance, management after the Council Session held on April 13, to the astonishment of our Union (which has long and patiently participated in negotiations, trying to avoid the more radical methods of union struggle expected by the membership), requests a reduction of the proposed coefficients for already vulnerable workers and an increase of the coefficients for managers who, by the way, do not belong to category D," reads the open letter.

The Trade Union reminds the explicitly stated views of the Minister of Finance that his department will not give consent to the salary increase of employees in management positions, i.e. those who do not belong to group D.

Due to, as they say, a four-month delay, they decided to involve the institutions of the system because they believe that they have an obligation to inform the public about what is happening in RTCG.

"Renovations are being renovated, exotic trips are being paid for, the right to trade union activities is being threatened"

"Although the general director, Boris Raonic, came to the head of RTCG with the message that the Bastille has fallen, we responsibly claim that the tradition of all previous directors has been continued. Today, RTCG is a media house whose building has been transformed from the inside into a large construction site, where the renovation of the building, which all the previous directors regularly renovated, is spending unknown amounts of money, in which the so-called variables are non-transparent, in which savings are made on minimal salary increases for employees, not to mention investment in their professional development. Today, RTCG is a media a house that finances the trips of management members to various exotic destinations and in which workers who point to all this in the 21st century are threatened by the legally guaranteed human right to trade union activity by making lists of trade unionists and sending them individual invitations for a meeting with the general manager. he writes in an open letter.

The union states that the management of the media company is not willing to comply with the recommendations of the Ministry...

"While the general director Boris Raonic receives almost 5 average Montenegrin salaries (3.500 euros) every month, and the president of the Council almost two average Montenegrin salaries (1.400 euros). As an employee in a media that is a mirror of Montenegro, in a media that looks at the problems of our society by making making them visible, we hereby appeal to you in the hope that you will look at our problem and contribute to its solution in the interest of the employees of the Public Service and the entire Montenegrin society," the open letter concludes.