AFP, Sarajevo :
“If we must, we will die for our rights,” says Jasmin Arific. Every morning Arific and his former colleagues from the Hidrogradnja public construction company gather in front of the government’s headquarters in Sarajevo to demand their pensions.
Hidrogradnja was once a jewel in the Yugoslav construction sector, an industrial mammoth employing up to 4,000 people.
But after Bosnia’s war in the 1990s, business gradually went downhill like at many state-run firms hit by both the transition to a market economy for which they were not equipped, and mismanagement.
Eventually Hidrogradnja was declared bankrupt in 2016.
Two years on, Arific and his co-workers, eight of whom have been on hunger strike since January 29, are still fighting for what is owed to them.
“Our pension contributions were not paid since 2003,” Arific told AFP.
“And on top of that, they owe us our salaries for 36 months,” said the 51 year-old father of three-his children are either unemployed or students.
He said that Hidrogradnja owed him 11,000 euros ($13,580) in back pay, a small fortune for a family of five living on the 205 euros that his wife takes home a month from working in a small supermarket.
Hidrogradnja’s bankruptcy threw 600 people out of work.
Nearly half of them who were entitled to retire immediately were shocked to find they would get no pension, as the company had not been paying into the state pension fund.
It is a widespread problem in Bosnia.
“If we must, we will die for our rights,” says Jasmin Arific. Every morning Arific and his former colleagues from the Hidrogradnja public construction company gather in front of the government’s headquarters in Sarajevo to demand their pensions.
Hidrogradnja was once a jewel in the Yugoslav construction sector, an industrial mammoth employing up to 4,000 people.
But after Bosnia’s war in the 1990s, business gradually went downhill like at many state-run firms hit by both the transition to a market economy for which they were not equipped, and mismanagement.
Eventually Hidrogradnja was declared bankrupt in 2016.
Two years on, Arific and his co-workers, eight of whom have been on hunger strike since January 29, are still fighting for what is owed to them.
“Our pension contributions were not paid since 2003,” Arific told AFP.
“And on top of that, they owe us our salaries for 36 months,” said the 51 year-old father of three-his children are either unemployed or students.
He said that Hidrogradnja owed him 11,000 euros ($13,580) in back pay, a small fortune for a family of five living on the 205 euros that his wife takes home a month from working in a small supermarket.
Hidrogradnja’s bankruptcy threw 600 people out of work.
Nearly half of them who were entitled to retire immediately were shocked to find they would get no pension, as the company had not been paying into the state pension fund.
It is a widespread problem in Bosnia.
