Retired Supreme Court Judge Radula Kojović did not use 126 working days of annual leave in the period from 2013 to 2020, his colleague Stanka Vučinić 134, a Petar Stojanovic 129, which will cost the state almost 50.000 euros.
Their colleagues from the Supreme Court rejected the revision of the High Court's verdict, which was requested by the state, and confirmed that Kojović should be paid 14.183 euros, Vučinić 20.339, and Stojanović 14.601 euros.
"The revision is rejected as unfounded," reads the Supreme Court ruling from April, signed by the judge Nataša Božović.
The Office of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests requested a review of the High Court's verdict, citing significant violations of the provisions of civil procedure, as well as incorrect application of substantive law.
"The revision's allegations that challenge the correctness of the application of substantive law are unfounded. The subject of this legal matter is the plaintiffs' request that the defendant pay them the amounts specified in the operative part of the first-instance judgment as compensation for material damage due to unused annual leave for the disputed period. According to the factual findings of the lower-instance courts, the plaintiffs were judges of the Supreme Court of Montenegro during the period for which they are claiming the compensation in question. During the disputed period, the defendant issued and delivered decisions on the use of annual leave to the plaintiffs, but the plaintiffs did not use part of the annual leave due to the on-call duty assigned to them by the defendant during the time when they should have used their annual leave," the Supreme Court's judgment states.
They specify that the total number of working days of annual leave for each prosecutor separately over a seven-year period was determined from the evidence presented, findings and opinions of economic and financial experts.
"...And then the number of working days in which they were on duty for that period and the difference thus obtained constitutes the number of unused days of annual leave of the prosecutors. The determination that they did not use annual leave due to being on duty during the time when they should have been, according to the decisions on the use of annual leave, gives the prosecutors the right to demand the compensation in question. The time that the prosecutors spent on duty according to the schedule determined by the employer cannot be considered annual leave days, so they are entitled to compensation for material damage due to the underutilized annual leave days during the time for which they were determined to be on duty according to the employer's indisputable schedule", the Supreme Court ruling specified.
In their opinion, the lower courts acted correctly when they decided in favor of the three retired judges.
"This is when considering the subject of the dispute, compensation for material damage due to unused annual leave, and the factual determination that the defendant, as the plaintiffs' employer, for each year of the disputed period, issued decisions to the plaintiffs on the use of the corresponding annual leave, but also that, in its written notifications delivered to the plaintiffs, it denied them the right to use their annual leave in full, by assigning them on-call duty for part of the days designated for the use of annual leave. The aforementioned actions of the defendants are not disputed between the parties. The legal definition is that working time is the period of time in which an employee performs the tasks and duties of the job for which he or she has established an employment relationship, as well as the time in which the employee is at the employer's disposal...", the verdict emphasizes.
It was also specified that, according to the findings of an economic and financial expert, the first prosecutor Kojović did not use 126 working days of annual leave in a seven-year period and that he is entitled to compensation of 14.183,25 euros.
"Second plaintiff Stanka Vučinić did not use 134 working days of annual leave, during which she was on duty in the period from 2013 to 2020, and therefore, on the requested basis, she is entitled to compensation in the amount of 20.339,86 euros... Third plaintiff, Petar Stojanović, did not use 129 working days of annual leave, during which he was on duty in the disputed period, and, calculated according to his last salary, on the requested basis, he is entitled to the amount of 14.601,32 euros," the verdict states.
The court also obliged the state to reimburse the judges for the costs of the civil proceedings, in the amount of 3.000 euros.
According to a report by the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro, the state lost 18,8 million euros in court cases last year. They warned that a large number of lawsuits are related to employment relations, but that such lawsuits continue to arrive.
Bonus video:
