Fifty-nine-year-old Željko Pavlović began a hunger strike this morning in front of the Pljevlja Coal Mine Administration Building because he has been unable to find employment for more than 23 years.
Pejović, a graduate geological engineer, says that he decided to take this step because all his attempts to find a job have so far yielded no results, even though many people promised to employ him in his profession.
He is determined to protest daily in front of the management of the largest Pljevlja company until someone in charge at Rudnik accepts him for an interview and listens to him.
"This is a systematic persecution. I am deprived of my rights. My problems began in 1998 when that big protest rally was held in Podgorica, where I was arrested, even though I did not participate in any riots. After that, wherever they could, they cut off every segment of my life," claims Pavlović, a father of two.
Pejović points out that after completing his studies, he worked as an apprentice in the coal mine, and he also worked for a short time in the Šuplja stijena mine.
"I have been registered with the Employment Agency for the last 23 years. I have been trying to find a job, but I have not been successful. I have also tried other professions, but wherever I applied, I felt that someone wanted to eliminate you," said Pejović.
He claims that as an unemployed person, he also approached the mayor for help, but that he "did not show any interest in it."
"I tried to contact the director of the Coal Mine. We did not make that direct contact, but through a friend, he arranged a meeting for me through his associates and they told me that there were no positions for geologists at the Mine, although according to the systematization they adopted, there was almost one position. They say that they have since abolished that position. That was the specific reason that tipped the scales and why I started a hunger strike this morning. My goal is for someone to accept me and at least tell me to my face that there is no job or life for me here," said Pavlović.
In order to provide for himself and his children, Pavlović spent some time abroad, where he worked various jobs.
"I fought, I fought, and now I can't anymore. Imagine if someone took half of your life in the city where I was born. If there was real competition and because of that I couldn't be accepted into the Coal Mine, I would accept it. Since 1990, there has been no competition and people are accepted here based on godfather, family, party ties. Imagine, there are places in the Mine for historians, philosophers, sociologists, for those with purchased diplomas, but there is no place for me, who graduated from the Faculty of Mining in Belgrade. My goal is not to target anyone, but I feel disenfranchised without the right to exist. Let's switch things up so that these social workers, historians and philosophers go to work where they were educated, and I come here for what I was educated for. I think that would be fair. So many people have been accepted, and there is no place for one man who is a graduate engineer in geology, with a profession that is most compatible with mining. If they value dubious diplomas more than the one I have, let them tell me, so I can try to get it too," said Pavlović ironically.
He says he was not even able to claim the right to compensation that was paid to people in the mining and metalworking professions.
"This is the same DPS branch, they just changed their uniforms. Now there is no place in the Coal Mine for those who have been against the DPS their whole lives, and employment is based on family ties, godparents and other connections, although many who are employed do not have references for the places they work. Do I have the right to work somewhere? My grandfather had three plots where coal is now mined. Imagine someone mining coal on my grandfather's land, and I don't even have the right to work. I just want to work and live," said Pavlović.
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