In the first half of the year, 239 lawsuits were filed against the state, that is, the state administration and state bodies based on employment claims, in the basic court in Pljevlja. On the same basis, 75 lawsuits were filed against public institutions.
This was announced by the president and spokesperson of the Basic Court in Pljevlja Marina Jelovac.
As Jelovac said, the lawsuits were filed after an unsuccessful mediation procedure for the amicable settlement of disputes.
"The lawsuits were filed due to the payment of the difference in salary, salary compensation, salary increase based on night, overtime and work on national and religious holidays, compensation for unused vacation, on-call and standby, transportation, jubilee bonus and salary supplement in the form of special military allowance and border allowance", Jelovac said.
Most of the lawsuits were filed by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Army of Montenegro, the General Hospital and the Health Center in Pljevlja.
At the end of May, the Basic Court in Pljevlje announced that 10 lawsuits were filed against Montenegro, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, for the annulment of the decision on the dismissal of directors in educational institutions, and 12 lawsuits for damages in the form of lost earnings with the fact that in one lawsuit the annulment of the decision on the dismissal of the director in an educational institution was also requested.
Claims were accepted in nineteen cases. In three final judgments, a total amount of 13.598 euros was awarded, and in six judgments that are not final, a total amount of 41.742 was awarded. In one case, the lawsuit was withdrawn, and in two cases, the procedure is ongoing.
In the Basic Court in Pljevlja, in addition to the president of the court, the function of judge was performed by only two other female judges, two judges less than the number required for legal and up-to-date performance of the judge's function. Nine judges used to work in the Basic Court in Pljevlja.
The problem of the lack of judges in Pljevlja has been expressed for the last two years, when two judges retired.
The president of the court, Marina Jelovac, told "Vijesta" that the Judicial Council had advertised twice for the recruitment of judges, but that none of the candidates had expressed a desire to come and work in Pljevlja.
She also said that none of the candidates from Pljevlja applied for the competition.
She believes that the legal solution, which stipulates that judges must first go to training for a year and a half at the Basic Court in Podgorica, contributes to the lower interest of candidates from Pljevlja.
"I expect that the law will change in that part and that candidates who are elected as judges will be able to complete the training in other courts, not only in the Basic Court in Podgorica, which will contribute to solving the problem of the lack of judges. In the Basic Court in Pljevlja, we have counselors who have passed the professional exam, but did not apply for the advertisement because it does not suit them to spend a year and a half in training in Podgorica due to family reasons," said Jelovac.
She said that despite that fact, the Basic Court in Pljevlja achieved good results in terms of quantity and quality.
The average workload of judges in 2023 was 772 cases, and an average of 557,67 cases were resolved per judge, and 214,33 cases remained unresolved.
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