Protest of the RTCG Trade Union, the proposed collective agreement is unacceptable to them

Employees claim that they are being put under "unprecedented pressure" to sign the proposed collective agreement. Raonic says that is a big accusation and that "someone is clearly not telling the truth here."

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From the protest, Photo: Jelena Kočanović
From the protest, Photo: Jelena Kočanović
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The protest of the Radio Television of Montenegro (RTCG) Union was held today in front of the institution's building, and the reason was the signing of the Collective Agreement, which, as the union representatives said, is unacceptable.

The speech was given by the president of the Union, Jadranka Drobnjak.

"The reason for today's address is the unprecedented pressure on the management and members of the Union to sign the proposed Collective Agreement, which is unacceptable to us. With this proposal, high school students do not receive a salary increase, most university graduates receive 60 to 80 euros, while managers who already have a four-digit salary receive 200 euros and more," said Drobnjak, adding that this means that the majority of employees at RTCG, including those who create program content on a daily basis, still remain in the state minimum wage zone.

"In addition, managers at the top of the management pyramid are assigning themselves variables that are higher than their basic salary. The Ministry of Finance recently warned about this, emphasizing that this makes the institute of salary meaningless and violates the principle of transparency."

Drobnjak also said that management is introducing an item on individual dismissal into the text of the proposed Collective Agreement.

"... And so that for certain serious violations of work obligations, an employee can be fired without conducting disciplinary proceedings in which he would have the right to defend himself," said the union president.

She said that they see this way of introducing the principle of "the judge sues you, the judge judges you" into the Collective Agreement as a very dangerous intervention that serves to intimidate employees and discipline the "disobedient", "which has been a key management strategy for a long time," said Drobnjak.

She said that since the union's founding in 2017, no RTCG management has looked favorably on their activities.

"...Most often, they accused us of political bias. They settled with us through a union that was close to them. And this time, as a result of the negotiation process, the management formed a new union. At the same time, the general director threatened the leadership of our union that they would remove a third of our membership. Our members suffer pressure, blackmail, and threats from management every day to leave the union and jeopardize our representativeness. The management's goal is to prevent us from participating in the negotiation process. In a very short time, 50 union members left under pressure. Those who resist are denied tasks approved by the production and financial plan - filming, official trips, production of shows, jobs are eliminated, and disobedient TV journalists are sent to the radio," said Drobnjak.

She said she wanted to remind the public that the RTCG Employees' Union organized the first warning strike in the history of RTCG in 2023.

"...In order to achieve some kind of salary increase. Despite this, 80 percent of RTCG employees are still in the state minimum wage zone. We are saying that after years of investment in the RTCG building, it is time to finally provide a minimum of professional dignity for employees whose work the management gladly and often praises," Drobnjak pointed out.

Raonić: The employer wants a salary increase, agree on it - and the union won't allow it

After the union president's speech ended, journalists were invited to the RTCG building so that the director of that public service, Boris Raonić, could give a statement to the media.

He said that he was not fully aware of the events in front of the building.

Raonic
Raonicphoto: Jelena Kočanović

"What I saw in the announcement is that one of the RTCG unions accuses the management of wanting to force the signing of a collective agreement for RTCG. Given that there is a big accusation on the table, and the greatest value of the public service is the truth and that someone is obviously not telling the truth here, they claim that this is our proposal and that it is pressure from the management in order to sign the Branch Collective Agreement. What we claim is that this is actually a joint proposal as a result of months of negotiations between my two assistants and three members of the Management Board (MB) from the Media Union, and that this is an agreed version. My proposal to the Media Union is that I, together with my two assistants who conducted the negotiations and three members of the Media Union, approach and take a lie detector test, and for anyone who is found not to be telling the truth to voluntarily leave RTCG," said Raonić.

Responding to a journalist's question, he said that it is not true that 80 percent of employees receive the minimum wage and that this is easily verifiable information.

"We, as employers, initiated the adoption of the Sectoral Collective Agreement, which was obstructed by the Media Union, which is mainly made up of employees and people in the editorial board of 'Vijesti'. So we have an absurd situation where the employer does not want to be paid for your work on Sundays, holidays, etc. As for employees of RTCG, we have provided apartments for 90 families, the salary increase we proposed would be significantly above the republican average, including all categories. We have increased allocations for treatment, we have supported all sports activities, we have improved the working conditions of employees and we have dozens of your colleagues (journalists) who are ready to move to the public service because they recognize the atmosphere for work. We have an absurd situation where the employer wants a salary increase, agrees on it - and the Union does not allow it," Raonić told reporters.

He added that it is an absurd situation that the improvement of conditions for media employees is regulated through the Sectoral Collective Agreement and that private media prevent this.

"What you can be sure of at this moment is that we at the public service will not allow Željko Ivanović's pawns to exercise inappropriate influence, that is, to protect the interests of the 'Vijesti' concern," Raonić told reporters.

When asked how he would comment on allegations that "disobedient" journalists from television are being sent to radio, Raonic said that this is not true and that he is calling on everyone to take a lie detector test to determine who is telling the truth.

He added that all employees are familiar with the negotiation process, which has been going on for almost a year.

Raonić, commenting on the allegations that 50 people left the Union, said that this happened because they saw that the Union was fighting against their interests - namely wage increases.

He invited journalists to come tomorrow at the same time so he could show them additional documentation and information.

When asked by a journalist why there was no one from RTCG among the news crews, Raonić said that he did not know and that the editor decides.

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