The absence of social dialogue might lead to a strike at Belgrade airport, said the trade union representatives. A few days ago the company management informed workers that those whose work contracts expire at the end of October will lose their jobs. The decision, reasoned by a “decline in business activity”, was followed by a social program intended for those willing to resign voluntarily. The reaction of trade unions was immediate: in the announcement that followed quickly thereafter they said they could not acquiesce in the fact that their colleagues might become part of the army of unemployed and poor.
Those to be dismissed are the employees working in supply and security services, among them the ones controlling the luggage and taking care of the airplanes. The management arguments were met with the utmost suspicion, as the unions are kept far from reliable documents related to business and are therefore not able to draw conclusions on company finance. Their assertions are categorical: “We never saw the agreement on concessions signed by the VINCI Airports and Serbian government. In spite of the Prime Minister’s multiple promises to make it published, it hasn’t appeared in public, so far. Whenever we try to do something for workers, our partners usually quote the mysterious document”.
The misunderstandings are, however, present for a long time. For example, forty female employees were dismissed immediately after ending the maternity leave, although they were perfectly fit for work. In the future, the situation might get complicated additionally as the staff will have to clean toilettes and the rest of the airport building themselves. “They promised to provide us with buckets and squeegees at their own expense”, complain the indignant workers.
The unions are generally concerned for workers’ fate in post-corona times. After analyzing the current trends, several independent Serbian institutes already reported that within a few months a big number of redundancies are to be expected – round 200,000. These data clash with those communicated by the government, according to which the consequences of the pandemic should not affect us too much. The truth must lie somewhere in between, still it’s a fact that the cessation of the government aid to companies and workers will leave many of them in a serious trouble. It’s not hard to guess that victims will mostly be among those who worked with short-term contracts and in informal economy, people who will literally have to strive to make ends meet.
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