The daily newspaper “Pobjeda” continues its sustained and malicious attacks on CEDIS. Namely, in cooperation with certain CEDIS employees, as well as certain dismissed members of the former CEDIS management, the daily newspaper “Pobjeda” is attempting, through constant media pressure, to bring about the dismissal of the current CEDIS management and thereby enable their possible return to some of the company’s management positions, all for personal gain and to conceal their misdeeds and irregularities, in which some of them personally took part.
The proposed Rulebook on Amendments to the Rulebook on Resolving the Housing Needs of CEDIS Employees creates, for the first time, opportunities to address the housing needs of all employees on an equal basis, without the privileges previously enjoyed. This has provoked the expected negative reaction from some colleagues who, over previous decades, enjoyed undeserved privileges thanks to their loyalty to the former three-decade-long regime.
We wish to emphasise first and foremost that the claims reported by the newspaper “Pobjeda” in today’s pamphlet-like publication—that this is an urgent meeting of the Board of Directors convened because of the proposed Rulebook—are untrue. It is, in fact, the 14th regular meeting of the Board of Directors, at which consideration of the proposed amendments to the Rulebook is just one of the nine items on the approved agenda. In accordance with the provisions of the Labour Law and the CEDIS Collective Agreement, trade union representatives have been invited to attend the meeting at which the proposal in question will be considered.
We also wish to point out that a meeting was previously held with representatives of CEDIS’s representative trade union organisations, at which the proposed Rulebook and their comments on it were discussed.
The proposed amendments and supplements to the Rulebook provide for:
- abolishing the Executive Director’s discretionary authority to set priorities among applicants—managers—at their own discretion, regardless of the established criteria for granting loans;
- abolishing the privilege that allows managers to repay their loan obligations on more favourable terms than other employees, since the current Rulebook stipulates that their loan obligation amounts to only 25% of the total funds received as a loan, regardless of years of service, whereas for other employees the loan obligation is determined according to their years of service;
- employees performing duties of particular importance (advisers, coordinators, heads, etc.), who have so far had their housing needs addressed on preferential terms, like management, will have their housing needs addressed on the same list and under the same conditions as other employees;
- as a result of the proposed amendments to the Rulebook, none of the new members of management appointed from outside CEDIS will be eligible to participate in this year’s allocation of housing funds.
Thus, the main purpose of amending the Rulebook is to abolish the authority’s right—which was used and abused over many years in the past—to make arbitrary decisions without criteria, and to establish equal criteria for the allocation of housing loans to all employees.
It follows from the above that the amendments concern several articles of the aforementioned Rulebook, not just three articles, as stated in the article.
The article further states that the amendments to the Rulebook provide that, for management to qualify for housing assistance, an employee must, at the time of the call, have either held a management position for at least two years or worked for the Company for at least five years. Unlike the previous provision, which required only a minimum of two years in a management position, this favours employees with longer service at the company over those joining from other companies. It is interesting that under the current provision, someone brought in from another company to a management position could have their housing needs addressed by CEDIS after just five to seven years of total service, while an employee who is not a manager waits 30 years or more for their housing needs to be addressed.
In light of the above, it is surprising that any company employee could advocate completing this allocation under the existing Rulebook, thereby opposing the removal of privileges for management and the creation of conditions for equal criteria for all employees.
MONTENEGRIN ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
