Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
19.09.2015.

Response of the Ministry of Defence to the Serbian Army Union



Serbian Army Union issued a letter to the Human Resources Department of the Ministry of Defence letter asking for information regarding the status of professional soldiers that are turning 40 years of age. You can find the letter on the following LINK.

For a complete and transparent providing of information to the public, the following is a complete answer the Ministry of Defence sent to the Serbian Army Union concerning the aforementioned letter of the trade union organization.

"These are completely untrue statements that the Minister of Defence made a decision to deny the approval for the extension of the employment contract with professional soldiers over 40 years of age. On the contrary, the Minister of Defence, as he has done in the previous period, in accordance with the legal authorization laid by the provision of Article 42, paragraph 4 of the Law on the Army of Serbia, as well as his order Conn. No. 1791-1 of 08.19.2015, among other things, ordered the Human Resources Department of the Ministry of Defence to identify options and propose modalities for an extension of the employment contract up to 46-48 years of age of professional soldiers, that is, that by the termination of the contract, this category of professional military personnel gain advantage in the staffing of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.

We also note the fact that the Article 253, paragraph 5 of the Law on the Execution of Criminal Sanctions explicitly foresees the possibility of employment in the security services for the persons that have acquired experience in the same or similar positions in the ministry in charge of internal affairs, defence, Serbian Armed Forces or the Security Information Agency, and that the opinion of the Ministry of Defence on the provision of Article 16 of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Communal Police has been adopted, which proposes that, exceptionally, professional soldiers can be employed in the position of municipal police officers from the Serbian Armed Forces, provided that they also meet the other requirements envisioned by the law.

Given the aforementioned, and in particular the aspirations of the Serbian Army Union that to become a coryphaeus of the union thought as a representative trade union and the protection of socio-economic interests of professional SAF members, we consider the consistently manifested pretentious and ultimate way of communication with the Ministry of Defence to be extremely inappropriate, which certainly does not contribute to optimum environment necessary for constructive, partnership dialogue between unions and the representative of employer’s interest, but is a serious condition for creating a climate of antagonism, which is certainly not in anyone's interests, least in the interests of groups of trade union character.

Lastly, we would like to once again turn the attention to the fact that the coordination of the requirements of unions and employer interests at the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces is under the authority of the Human Resources Department (J-1) of SAF General Staff, and that in this sense it is necessary that you establish future communication exclusively with this organizational unit of SAF General Staff".


 
MOD
Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia, Bircaninova 5 street, Belgrade
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