In the last three months alone, close to a thousand workers employed in textile and footwear production in the Federation have lost their jobs. All in silence. Company representatives will not appear in front of the cameras, the government is silent, there is no money to save jobs.
Visoko, Kiseljak, Novi Travnik, Bosanski Petrovac, Buzim – this is only a part of the cities where, since the beginning of the year, there has been a constant decrease in the number of employees and layoffs in companies producing textiles and shoes. The data for just the last three months are alarming.
“For the last three months, the number of employees in these activities has decreased by 924,” says Adis Durak, head of the Department for Inspection Supervision at Cantonal Tax Office Novi Travnik.
Behind each of these numbers is most often a woman whose reaction, obviously, employers are not afraid of. This is confirmed by a former employee of Prevent in Buzim, who, after 34 years of service, is on the street. First, she says, notices were given to 40 workers with fixed-term contracts.
“The next day, when we, the previous workers came, 29 of us, it was announced that two female lawyers were coming to hand us our resignations. We are not cattle, we are people. If it was done in human way, to come and say – that’s the situation. We had projects we were working on, those projects were suspended, and we were sent home”, says Sabira Odobasic.
Ramiz Zvrko, director of the Zvrko Shoe Factory, states that he has been operating at a loss for three months: “I have exhausted all resources.” The machine I had, I sold only to save the workers. They did not stay a single day. We made two thousand pairs for this month, and we need six thousand – you can imagine the losses”.
The branch union says – the global crisis is a fact, just like the fact that this industry has a special status when calculating wages.
“The gross base is applied, which is almost twice less than the prescribed gross base for the minimum wage in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), and at the same time, those employees can be paid a net amount that is up to 85% of the average salary in the FBiH”, specified Durak.
However, the fact that cannot be ignored is that almost a thousand former textile and shoemakers, most of whom are women, were silently sent to the records of employment services. The Government of the Federation has not announced anything about this, but it was learned that a meeting on this topic will be held soon.
