Gosa workers halt strike – New owner pays RSD 60,000 to each employee

After a month and a half of striking, the workers of Gosa Smederevska Palanka returned to the factory, as the new owner had paid RSD 60,000 to each of them and promised to pay them another RSD 30,000 the next week.

– We've received twice as much as we did until now, RSD 35,000 and RSD 25,000 each, and we are to receive another RSD 30,000 next week – says Milorad Miloradovic, president of the Autonomous Union at the company, for Danas.

The strike is currently “on ice”, the employees have returned to their jobs, but the new owner is supposed to fulfill other requests of the workers as well. The key one among them is the payment of salaries from the past several years. The agreement reached with the new owners is to repay the past salary debt, ranging from RSD 500,000 to RSD 600,000 in 16 monthly installments.

– First, we need to work and earn our salaries, and we should discuss in June how the back debt is to be repaid – Miloradovic points out. As he says, the entire debt is to be repaid to the workers by “the new-old owner”.

Aside from unpaid salaries, ZOS Trnava, former owner of Gosa, also failed to pay retirement contributions to workers and to verify their health insurance cards. The Slovakian company owes around EUR 1.8 million to the workers, whereas its tax debts towards the state amount to EUR 4 million. When the 220 workers of the factory protested against this in late March, ZOS Trnava sold Gosa to Lisnart Holdings Limited, a company registered in Cyprus, in a single day.

Due to the speed of the sale, there have been allegations in the media, but also among the employees, that the new owners are in fact related to the old ones. Miloradovic says that the factory doesn't doesn't know who exactly is behind the new company, nor who is repaying the debt, but that it doesn't matter either, as the workers now only want for the debt to be fully repaid and for there to be work.

Fabrika drumskih vozila Goša Smederevska Palanka

Gosa

Gosa Smederevska Palanka

Gosa rail vehicle facotry

Autonomous Union Gosa

ZOS Trnava

Lisnart Holdings Limited

rail car factory