prijava
MOSTAR, July 31 (FENA) - The FBiH Prime Minister Fadil Novalić said on Wednesday that the company ‘Aluminij’ Mostar will continue to operate, but that the concept of the functioning of the company itself will change in the coming period because it cannot survive in this form due to market circumstances.
"At a meeting with representatives of Aluminij, that is the minority shareholders, the Management Board, and the Trade Union, we adopted the conclusions and the deadline for the attempt to restructure the company which is the end of 2019," said the FBiH Prime Minister at a press conference, adding that if this proves to be unsuccessful, then other options would be considered, namely the termination of this legal entity and the transition into a new one.
Novalić stressed that in any solution - either restructuring or changing the legal continuity – the employees will be the priority.
"Four groups of employees will be designated: those who should retire, those who have 3 years until retirement, those without whom the production process cannot be relaunched, and finally those who want severance pay, and which may only come from the funds of the company," Novalić explained.
The FBiH Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Nermin Džindić said that the Aluminij Administration today submitted a draft of restructuring plan that will be implemented in three phases, but that this does not imply the final solution.
"The first phase is the start-up of the foundry, the second start-up of the anode fabrication plant and the third electrolysis," Minister Dzindic said, adding that they requested to be provided with a financial-technical-technological analysis of all these phases and the plan they had outlined.
"After all this is submitted to us, we will have a meeting and consider what the final solution would be," Minister Džindić said.
As for the Aluminij's debt to HZ-HB Electricity Company, two solutions have been proposed.
"The first is to change the decision we reached mid last year, which we did not agree to, and the second option is a court settlement on the debt reprogramming, to which we have given our conditional consent," said Minister Džindić.
The FBiH Finance Minister Jelka Milićević commented on the employees' retirement and past service and stressed that, all employees who have earned the right to retire by the end of 2019, will be enabled to do so.
"The workers who are missing three years until retirement have a special status with the Employment Institute. They will have a salary, and their taxes and contributions paid, and after those three years, they will meet all the conditions for retirement," explained Minister Milićević.
She noted that in order to receive care and benefits from the Employment Institute, the employees must have their past service linked for all the seventeen months that they are lacking.
(FENA) S. R.
