08.06.2011.

Working Meeting of Minister Sutanovac with trade union representatives of defence contractors

At the Ministry of Defence today, Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac, Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric, and Minister of Labour and Social Policy Rasim Ljajic have had a working meeting with the chairs of executive boards and presidents of the Independent Union of Metalworkers of Serbia in companies within the group of Serbian Defence Industry.

Today's talks were organized in order to observe the current problems of operating in companies belonging to the Serbian defence industry and ways of solving them.

On this occasion, the Defence Minister briefed the representatives of the Union about the activities which the Ministry of Defence, in accordance with its responsibilities, implemented and undertaken in order to create more favourable conditions for more successful operation of the companies.

- Today we have had high quality talks, during which we mostly agreed that the April salaries of employees in the Zastava Arms have been paid off and now the employees are to receive the May advance, and that the situation is not as bad as it seemed. On the other hand, we had a comprehensive presentation of the situation in the defence industry and talks with all the representatives of the factories. This presentation illustrates the facts showing that Zastava Arms, except for the burden of the previous debts, has also the largest number of workers who, unfortunately, do not have a job – Minister Sutanovac pointed out, expressing his hope that a serious analysis by a Working Group which will be formed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia will lead to information on how many employees the factory should have.

- At today's meeting, all of us, including the representatives of Zastava Arms, agreed that the factory has a surplus of employees and we should find a way to make conditions for providing severance package for these people – Sutanovac underlined.

Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric said after the meeting that the talks were held in a correct atmosphere and it was agreed that at tomorrow's session of the Government a working group will be formed to include representatives of the Prime Minister's Office, ministries of finance, economy and regional development, defence, labour and social policy. There will be proposed, he said, that this body involve also the representatives of Zastava Arms and trade union branches in order to make a detailed analysis of business operation of that factory during the next month, as well as its product portfolio and personnel strength, to ensure a clear picture of the future steps.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of the Independent Trade Union of Sloboda – Cacak, Dragan Jekic, of the Independent Trade Union of Prvi Partizan – Uzice, Zoran Stanic, Independent Trade Union of HK Krusik – Valjevo, Branko Petrovic, and the Independent Trade Union of "Zastava Arms" – Kragujevac, Dragan Ilic, the Independent trade Union of "Prva Iskra – dedicated production" – Baric, Nenad Milivoj?evi?, and the Independent Trade Union of "Milan Blagojevic – dedicated production" – Lucani, Zoran Babic.