In an address to the media, the Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Vedran Lakić said that at today’s session of the Federation of BiH Government, the ministers unanimously adopted a conclusion regarding the bankruptcy proceedings of the company Zrak, which is to invite the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to join this process.
He said that the government’s interest is that the company recovers and continues to work, and that they will continue to hold meetings, announcing a new one as early as tomorrow with those involved in this process.
The bankruptcy administrator of the company “Zrak” Sarajevo ordered that all workers deregister from the employment contract and report to the bureau.
About 60 employees of Zrak who lost their jobs announced that they will stay in the company’s premises and go on hunger strike.
In the rest of the day, “Zrak” workers will hold a meeting with the Union of Metalworkers’ Unions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will decide on the next steps.
We would like to remind you that the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the previous session adopted a conclusion on reviewing the merits of initiating bankruptcy proceedings.
The government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(FBiH) continues to promote the process of bankruptcy of the company “Zrak”, regardless of the signing of a new contract with the renowned European manufacturer of military equipment Hirtenberger, and two more foreign contracts were planned.
Semir Efendic, the head of the Municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo, revealed the information that one of the lawyers has already received a decision from the court on the appointment of a bankruptcy administrator in the company “Zrak” for the one-month pre-bankruptcy procedure.
Efendic added that the decision states that the management of the company should propose a decision on bankruptcy. However, the mandate of the current acting management of “Zrak” expired at the beginning of this week, and the FBiH Government has not yet appointed a new one.
To recall, the long-awaited contract and strategic partnership between “Zrak” and “Hirtenberger” was made official last week. The workers, as well as the chief, believed that such a large contract would save “Zrak” from bankruptcy.
However, we see that this did not happen. Even earlier, Efendic accused the Prime Minister of the FBiH Fadil Novalic (SDA) and the Entity Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Nermin Djindic (SBB) for the difficult situation in “Zrak”.
“We cannot believe that now the FBiH Government is again pushing ‘Zrak‘ into bankruptcy. Now we have a contract with a European giant when it comes to the production of weapons and military equipment. I think that before there might have been a better time for ‘Zrak‘to go into bankruptcy, but now it is definitely not the time for that. Minister Nermin Djindic is the biggest culprit for that. We see now that everything is being done for the sake of the interests of individuals. We will not give up and will do everything in our power to save the company ‘Zrak’,” told Emir Kominlija, president of the Trade Union of the company “Zrak”.
If the question is asked why it is in the interest of the state to push a state-owned company into bankruptcy, the answer is simple. The value of Zrak’s facilities and land is almost 40 million BAM. Construction lobbies find the location attractive, so they do everything to pollute Zrak, destroy and wipe out buildings from the ground, and seize the land. Construction brokers and privatization funds want to come between management and workers, they give bribe to individuals, separate workers, and have done everything to ensure that even the air in “Zrak” (air) is not clean.
Namely, “Zrak” workers announced several times and went on protests to express their dissatisfaction with the situation in which they find themselves.
