The Port of Kotor undertakes to reinstate Snežana Jonica to work and assign her to jobs and work tasks that are appropriate to her level of professional qualifications and experience, within eight days of receiving the verdict, under threat of forced execution.
This is stated in the judgment of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, which "Vijesti" had access to, and which adopted the revision, modified the judgment of the High Court, and confirmed the judgment of the Basic Court in Kotor.
"The revision of Snežana Jonica is adopted, and the judgment of the Higher Court in Podgorica of May 17, 2024 is modified in the part that rejected the request for annulment, as an unlawful decision to terminate the plaintiff's employment contract, by rejecting the appeal of Luka Kotor as unfounded and confirming the partial judgment of the Basic Court in Kotor, in that part," the judgment reads.
The Basic Court in Kotor annulled, as unlawful, the decision of the then executive director of the Port of Kotor AD company, Milko Krvavac, to dismiss the former head of the administrative sector at that company and ordered that Jonica return to the position she had held before she was fired.
"The defendant's decision to terminate the employment contract of November 29, 11, is annulled as unlawful and obliges the defendant to reinstate the plaintiff and assign her to the jobs and work tasks she performed at the time of the decision to terminate the employment contract," states the verdict of Judge Veljko Bulatović, issued on November 2022, 11, which was published by "Vijesti" at the time.
Krvavac (SNP) issued a decision on November 29, 2022, dismissing Jonica because, as he stated, she refused to sign an annex to the Employment Contract that would have assigned her to another job.
Luka Kotor delivered the offer to Jonica to sign the annex by sticking the document on the bulletin board in the company's administrative building, because Jonica was on sick leave at the time.
Jonica stated within the given deadline that she accepted the offer, but that due to temporary inability to work, she could not submit the signed annex, which was not physically available to her at the time, and that she would sign it later when it was delivered to her.
Krvavac offered Jonica the position of director of the administrative sector, a position she had held for five years, since the signing of her employment contract with the Port of Kotor, to the position of legal officer.
This represented a significant demotion for the former official and former SNP MP, or former leader of the Socialists of Montenegro, considering her professional references, but also the fact that the position she was offered was two levels lower in the hierarchy, and the salary was one-third lower.
In his offer, Krvavac cited "the need for process and work organization for objective reasons" as the reasons for this, and stated "that the employee, after being assigned work tasks that she had previously opposed and refused to perform, was not working in the employer's interests."
As a reason for changing the employment contract, Krvavac also stated that Jonica "suddenly went on sick leave."
Despite the fact that Jonica stated that she accepted the offer, which she would later challenge in court, Krvavac fired her at the end of November 2022 and ordered her to be paid severance pay of 3.226 euros.
In May 2024, the Higher Court reversed the Basic Court's verdict and rejected as unfounded Jonica's claim to annul the decision on her dismissal and reinstate her job.
The Port of Kotor also challenged the Basic Court's verdict before the Higher Court.
"The partial judgment of the Basic Court in Kotor of November 16, 2023 is reversed and decides: the claim seeking to annul the unlawful decision of the Port of Kotor to terminate the employment contract of Snežana Jonica is dismissed as unfounded, and to oblige the Port of Kotor to return Jonica to work and assign her to the jobs and work tasks she performed at the time of the decision to terminate the employment contract."
Jonica then requested a review before the Supreme Court, which issued its verdict on May 27th of this year.
"The second-instance judgment, which decided on the request for annulment of the decision to terminate the employment contract, should have been reversed, as in the operative part under paragraph one of this judgment. Likewise, since the request for reinstatement to the same job was decided by incorrect application of the substantive law from Article 180, paragraph 5 of the Labor Law, it was necessary to reverse the judgments of the lower courts, as in paragraph two of the operative part of this judgment, and oblige the defendant to reinstate the plaintiff and assign her to jobs that correspond to her level of professional qualifications and work experience acquired through work, and not to the same job, because the assignment of an employee is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the employer," the Supreme Court's reasoning states in the judgment.
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