The company for construction Beton AD Skopje has not paid its employees for the fourth month, and its account has been closed or blocked for more than 45 days. The trade union for construction, industry and design announced that, on behalf of the employees of DG Beton AD Skopje, yesterday it submitted a proposal to the Basic Civil Court in Skopje for the opening of bankruptcy proceedings, i.e. for the termination of the employer, after using all legal mechanisms in a period of nine months to receive back wages and the company to continue operating.  

The president of the Construction Trade Union, Ivan Peshevski, said at a press conference that the employees he represents will use the last legally allowed mechanism and are not retreating, as he said, from the intention of the company going into bankruptcy and, in addition to arrears of wages, from the bankruptcy estate they will also request the payment of the arrears of annual leave for 2021 and 2022.

– The construction trade union and the workers repeatedly reported to the State Labor Inspectorate about the illegal operation of the employer, but in addition to the legal obligations to pay wages, he did not do so and the employees have not received wages for the fourth month. We believe that these legally guaranteed rights of employees will succeed let's collect them at least in court, said Peshevski at the press conference at the headquarters of the Union of Trade Unions of Macedonia.

He also indicated that employees these days are pressured to sign fixed-term contracts, i.e. annexes to the existing ones, and to agree on their own that the old indefinite-term contracts will not apply to them. He appealed not to subject to, as he said, any pressures and threats to resign, but to wait for what is proposed to the court by opening bankruptcy proceedings. 

Taking into account the structure of the employees, Pesevski said, most of them will be compensated by the Employment Agency with compensation in case of unemployment, ie until retirement.

- As the first person of the union, I encourage all employees to call the court as creditors as soon as it is announced on the bulletin board in the court, about which we will inform again through the media, said Pesevski.  

He also said that the new management of the company "Beton"-Skopje is solely to blame for the fact that this giant instead of celebrating in December  75 years of existence, will pass into the hands of creditors and a bankruptcy trustee.

On this occasion, the president of SSM Darko Dimovski announced that bankruptcy proceedings are also being considered for Water Management because salaries have not been paid for the fourth month.

- The Union of Trade Unions of Macedonia, together with the agricultural union where we operate in AD Vodostopanstvo, which is state-owned, will also demand that a pre-bankruptcy procedure be initiated because the employees have not received their salaries for the fourth month. Today we will have a meeting with the director of Water Management and we will clearly present these facts to him and on what basis we will submit the pre-bankruptcy procedure if three arrears of salaries and the fourth which is current and is being worked on in September are not paid, informed Dimovski.