Kosovo Telecom Staff Threaten Strike Over Pay Cut

The union representing workers at Kosovo Telecom, formerly Post and Telecommunications of Kosovo, PTK, has warned of strikes if their salaries are cut - after Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said a pay cut of 20 per cent might be needed to save the company from bankruptcy.

"The statement by the PM was wrong … other unnecessary expenses can be cut. The damage to Telecom cannot be covered by employees' salaries," union head Lahim Balaj told BIRN on Thursday, after the government said it was unlikely to provide the 60 million euros that Telecom owes its creditors.

"We will take action; we already have organised a strike council and are on standby. We have discussed possible strikes and protests," Balaj said.

Once the most profitable company in Kosovo, Telecom's problems date from 2010 when the government then led by Hashim Thaci, currently the President of Kosovo, stopped further investment, awaiting the firm's privatisation.

"Privatisation never happened. But in 2010 it lost up to 10 per cent of its trade because of the blockage of investments by the government," a policy analyst at the Pristina-based GAP Institute, Berat Thaqi, told BIRN.

"The PM and ministers of that government have never been investigated about whether that decision was taken as a result of their own connections," he added.

Balaj told BIRN that government mismanagement was the key factor pushing Kosovo Telecom close towards bankruptcy.

"Around 520 million euros were taken from Telecom by the government up to 2015. In 2010, they stopped projects in the name of privatisation - and then took that money as a dividend," Balaj claimed.

Thaqi said that since the investments stopped, revenues have been steadily falling. "The management has served parties...