Trade union representative Serbian Electric Power Industry "Nezavisnost" Dragoslav Ljubičić received a warning before being fired from the branch TENT- and because since January 19, he has repeatedly published videos from his workplace and during working hours on his Facebook profile, allegedly violating the Code of Business Conduct. However, he claims that he did not violate that code in any way.
Ljubičić explained to Vreme why he is sure that he did not violate the Code of Business Conduct.
"Not a single employee of Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) is familiar with the content of that code in a proven way, except for those elements that are in the employment contract, and derive from that code," says Ljubičić.
Subsequently added paragraphs of the Code
The best evidence that there was no violation was that the Executive Board of EPS adopted amendments to the Code at the session held on January 29, and added new positions in Article 4, which describes those violations.
"These are paragraphs 31, 32, 33 and 34, which concern the acts that I am charged with - that I had activities in the workplace and work environment that I shared on social networks and thereby committed a disciplinary offense." However, even such a Code would not be important if every employee is not informed about it in a reliable way", emphasized Ljubičić.
He indicated that even such an amended Code, i.e. its amendments, will enter into force on the eighth day from the date of its adoption, upon publication on the EPS notice boards.
"The fact that something is published on the bulletin board does not mean anything," said Ljubičić.
Abuse at work
He assessed that, since before the adoption of the amendments to the Code on January 29, there was no reason to issue him a warning, that warning can only be interpreted as abuse at work.
"Someone from the top of EPS, under the signature of general director Dušan Živković, seriously abused me at work. "In addition to the fact that he committed a series of violations related to the Law on Strikes, I now feel very abused at work and I am calling the competent institutions, because my health and sense of security are seriously threatened because someone very powerful turned on me," said Ljubičić.
He stated that he is now "afraid of Dusan Živković", and emphasized that Živković should ask himself what kind of director he is, "if an employee who does his job honorably and responsibly is afraid of him".
"He should have asked himself whether - considering the current state of my soul and considering the work I do, which is very demanding, because it is the most responsible for the safety and regularity of the supply of blocks A4, A5 and A6 with coal - it is endangered traffic safety, and thus the supply of electricity to citizens," said Ljubičić.
Lawyers to speak out
He is particularly concerned about how the changes to the Code will affect the future activities of whistleblowers.
"I hope that the added provisions will be subject to the declaration of the legal profession, because my position is that they seriously violate constitutional rights and freedoms." If they are literally applied, the citizens of Serbia, the real owners of EPS property, will never reliably learn from EPS employees, according to the Whistleblower Protection Law, about all the inactions of EPS management," said Ljubičić.
As an example, he cited the serious breakdown of the digger on the new shipment of the "Nikola Tesla" Thermal Power Plant (TENT) A.
"The operation of that digger ensures the stable operation of blocks A4, A5 and A6." The miner was damaged a month ago, and only thanks to the exceptional work of the railway transport, those blocks have not fallen out of the network until now, but they did not work all three at the same time, because it is impossible to provide sufficient quantities of coal from the trains for the stable operation of all three blocks, so always one offline," said Ljubičić.
Javašluk in EPS
He added that EPS compensated for the electricity that was missing by importing it and pointed out that the question is how much was paid for the import of electrical energy "that could have been produced, but was not because of the error in EPS".
He assessed that thanks to the amendments to the Code on similar irregularities in the work of the EPS, whistleblowers may be able to inform the public only with anonymous letters, but not with their first and last name, because they are threatened with dismissal.
