The state owned ELEM/ESM energy company ordered its different branches to prepare lists of non-essential employees who could be furloughed. According to the plan, the workers would continue to receive 70 percent of their salaries while staying at home for a period of sevearl month, in an attempt to cut costs.
Energy production by the company, especially in its critical REK Bitola coal plant and coal mine, is collapsing after years of mismanagement and gross corruption. Macedonia is now forced to import much of its electricity under sky-high prices, and ELEM is legally bound to make purchases for at least 60 percent – and in reality 100 percent – of all household consumption, which quickly destroyed its cash reserves. The Zaev Government gave 65 million EUR to the company for emergency energy imports.
VMRO-DPMNE called out company manager Vasko Kovacevski for hiring hundreds of unnecessary employees over the past months, only to now be forced to issue furlough orders, which the party says are being used for politically motivated revenge attacks on employees.
Kovacevski needs to held responsible for turning one of the most successful companies into a loss making business. We demand that the furlough orders are stopped immediately. If not, after the change of the Government the process will be revised and Kovacevski will be held responsible, VMRO-DPMNE said in its statement.
In a shocking open letter published yesterday, showman and Racket trial defendant Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 detailed how Zaev extorted money from companies that were given coal mining contracts in Bitola.
Comments are closed for this post.