28. 12. 2005

RTS SETTLES THE DEBT

BELGRADE, December 28, 2005 – The first payment of arrears to casual workers of Radio Television Serbia will be made within the next few days. According to Dejan Kozul, Coordinator of the Section of the Independent Journalists of the Association of Independent Serbian Journalists (IJAS), 50 million dinars will be paid in the next few days to the RTS honorary workers, while the rest of the owning fees will be paid to around 2000 workers, whose contracts expired in June, in two installments at the beginning of the next year. RTS issued a statement saying that, according to the results of work in December, the company’s business conduct had improved and based on that statistics, the station decided to pay the first installment by the end of the month. Prior to the protest of RTS honorary workers in front of the television station, Kozul stated that there had been several attempts in the past five-six months to contact the RTS Managing Board, but, since there was no response from the members of the board, the workers decided to organize the “quiet” protest. “We have decided to gather in front of the television station and to try to appeal to them and to all other employers in Serbia that such behavior was unacceptable. The protest was successful and we got what we came for. The statement saying that the payments would be made was issued on December 23, a day after the IJAS had announced the protest”, said Kozul.