RTCG employees' union calls on MPs not to support Drljević's re-election: He created an atmosphere of fear and repression

The RTCG Employees' Union called on members of the Administrative Board and members of the Parliament of Montenegro not to support the re-election of Veselin Drljević as a member of the RTCG Council, stating that his current mandate has been marked by institutional instability, lack of transparency and violation of employees' rights.

They pointed out that the RTCG Employees' Union is a representative trade union organization and the only entity in the Public Service that is a signatory to all three RTCG Collective Agreements: 2019, 2023, and 2026.

"In this letter, we will not address his participation in the legally confirmed, second illegal election of General Director Boris Raonić in 2023, nor the first-instance verdict of the Basic Court, which found him guilty of abuse of office. These are well-known facts that, we are sure, have special weight when making decisions in the highest legislative body of our state - the Parliament of Montenegro. Although the second verdict is not yet legally binding and the presumption of innocence is a fundamental human right, the court proceedings themselves and the fact that proceedings are being conducted against the candidate cannot be a recommendation for a second term in the RTCG Council. At a time when Montenegro is trying to close chapters on the rule of law, it is important that persons whose integrity is not in question are elected to high public positions," the Union said in a statement.

They nevertheless emphasize that in their address they want to shed light on, as they said, lesser-known facts about Mr. Drljević's activities during his five-year term on the RTCG Council.

According to the Union's claims, RTCG still does not have a unified act on job systematization, although the Council is legally obliged to adopt it.

"Instead of a single document, the website contains more than 40 amendments adopted over the last five years, which testify to the most unstable period in the history of RTCG when it comes to this segment of the public service's work. A single document, as we were recently told by our legal department, does not exist and has never been adopted as such. Who benefits from creating chaos and why has the systematization of jobs changed at every Council session over the last 5 years? For an institution like Radio Television of Montenegro, which relies on specialized jobs and narrowly profiled staff, permanent systematization of jobs has no justification. Instead of ensuring continuity and stability, they create the impression of institutional instability, and among employees a sense of existential insecurity," they state in the statement.

The Union claims that Drljević and the General Director of the Public Service Boris Raonić used frequent changes in systematization as a means to discipline dissenting and union-active workers, "thus creating an atmosphere of fear and repression in which no one's job is secure."

The union also pointed to what they say is non-transparent spending of money through service contracts and variable payments.

According to their claims, RTCG annually allocates between 400.000 and 500.000 euros for service contracts, while the gross amount allocated for the variable part of salaries is around 735.000 euros.

"RTCG spends 400,000 to 500,000 euros annually on service contracts and 735,000 euros for variables in a gross amount in a completely non-transparent manner. It is unknown how the four-digit variables are calculated, which in RTCG go up to 2000 euros, as confirmed to us during the negotiation process. The Council has never submitted accounts to the State Audit Institution or the Ministry of Finance on how variables are allocated, which, believe it or not, are higher than the basic salary, which, as stated in a document from the Ministry of Finance, 'renders the institute of salary meaningless'," the Union states.

They also add that "the coordination between the general director and the president of the Council turned collective bargaining into an exhausting marathon that took 900.000 euros out of employees' pockets last year, and a million euros this year."

"Last year, Mr. Drljević personally called our aspiration to move out of the minimum wage zone and receive at least the average salary in the country - a big appetite for which RTCG does not have and will not have the money in the future," the statement added.

The Union claims that over the past years they have sent dozens of letters to the President of the RTCG Council, pointing out mobbing, professional degradation of employees through controversial changes in systematization, unfounded cancellation of projects of public interest, and other problems, but that they have never received a response.

"The President of the Council communicated with us from a position of force without the slightest effort to at least simulate a dialogue when there is no real dialogue and there cannot be one in a sea of ​​unilaterally made decisions imposed on employees. Simply put, Mr. Drljević behaved as if he could do anything. He can, together with the management, block the salary increase for a year and a half, pressure members of our Union to resign, transfer experienced professionals to entry-level positions as punishment, and ultimately claim that the union members were against increasing their own salaries. Anything can happen because Mr. Drljević trusts in you and your votes," the Union told the MPs and expressed hope that they would not get them this time, for the sake of the benefit, as they said, of the national public service and the entire social community that RTCG is supposed to serve.