Basic Court: KCCG unlawfully dismissed two head nurses

The Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG) illegally dismissed the head nurses of the Clinic for Neurology and the Clinic for Dermatovenerology Sladjana Bogavac i Sladjana Jovanovic, without specific reasons and evidence that they did not meet organizational capabilities.

This follows from the first-instance rulings of the Basic Court, which this month accepted the lawsuits of Bogavac and Jovanović and determined that the annexes to the employment contract of the Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG) from October 2024 are illegal.

Two nurses were then assigned to lower positions by an annex to their contract, and KCCG justified this decision by the needs of the work process and better work organization. The transfer followed after the institution's Commission made a list of medicines and consumables and identified irregularities. The nurses claimed in court that the reason for the dismissal was "a form of punishment for an alleged violation of their work obligation regarding the list of medicines". They pointed out that, if they had committed a violation, disciplinary proceedings should have been initiated and some measure imposed, but that this was not a reason for concluding an annex to the employment contract.

In its response to the lawsuits, KCCG claimed that this was not a punishment for violating work obligations, but rather that the reason for offering an annex to the employment contract was that the work process and work organization were not at the appropriate level while Bogavac and Jovanović were in the positions of head nurses, which, they believe, stems from the report of the commission for an extraordinary inventory of medicines and consumables in all organizational units.

"It is true that it is the employer's right to organize work and that in this sense the court cannot interfere with the organization. However, the fact that the offer to conclude an annex to the contract was made because the plaintiff did not respond with organizational skills, and based on the commission's report, the content of which cannot be linked to that, indicates that the reasons, although detailed, are contradictory," the judge's ruling states. Boško Bašović.

This, the court claims, points to the conclusion that there is a possibility that there are other reasons, not those written down - from which abuse the employee enjoys legal protection.

"In such circumstances, the defendant must prove that these omissions in relation to the plaintiff's workplace or in what way the plaintiff could have influenced the elimination of the omissions are of an objective nature, which is not the case. Therefore, the offer contains reasons, but they are contradictory to themselves and do not meet the requirements of the previously cited Article 47 of the Labor Law. The reasons in terms of that provision must be specified, which is not the case in this case, considering that the defendant refers in the offer to the content of the commission's report, and the report itself is contrary to what is stated in the offer," the judgments state.

The court also points out that the commission's report is general and does not even address all employees in certain positions, but rather points primarily to the shortcomings of the information system.

During the proceedings, the KCCG claimed that each organizational unit was informed that the census would not be conducted before the commission did so, which was nevertheless done at the two clinics where Bogavac and Jovanović were head nurses. However, it was not proven before the court that they informed anyone that the census would not be conducted before the commission arrived, nor did they have a rulebook regulating the issue.

The court found that it is true that the systematization act stipulates that the head nurse controls consumption and requisitions medicines, medical devices and consumables, but that the commission's report showed that sets were incorrectly created in the system, that the systematization was inconsistent, that there was a shortage of staff and insufficient training...

The commission's report, the court concludes, does not prove any shortcomings in the clinics, which are only related to the statement that they conducted a census before their arrival.

"In addition, from the tabular presentation of the inventory, there are certain differences between the state in the pharmacy and the inventory, but given the fact that the report states a problem with the sets created in the Heliant system, a reliable conclusion cannot be drawn that this is the plaintiff's responsibility, as previously stated," the verdicts state.