Instead of the news that their employer accepted the offer made by an Israeli-Chinese consortium, the workers of Bosnian aluminium smelter 'Aluminij Mostar' faced almost certain lay-offs on Monday.

“All we know is that we will receive the dismissal on December 31, we're going home, some will stay to work until January 15 for the notice period and that's it. The workers have been once again put on hold, they don't have any more will,” said one of the employees, Tanja Jovanovic.

The company's supervisory board said on Monday that the offer of ‘Abraham Group’ was unacceptable and invited the consortium as well as the management board to revise the bid to salvage the debt-ridden company.

Awaiting the decision on the offer, which they found acceptable and realistic, the workers said this was their hope that the company would resume operations. But, now the last hope has gone.

While the offer was acceptable for the workers, the company's management said the part concerning the length of lease needed modifications.

“We asked for excluding all those demands referring to various levels of authorities, and there are many of them, which doesn't fall under the competence of either the management or the supervisory board. We asked that the bid focuses on the foundry, in order to preserve the equipment and to engage workers because everything else demands longer time-frames and this is urgent,” said supervisory board head, Zdenko Klepic.

Experts and former employees who joined the gathering and expressed support to current workers, believe it is hard to expect the production to be launched again.

Although the near end is almost certain, there is a glimmer of hope. The supervisory board tasked the management to urge the Israeli-Chinese investor to resume talks in order to modify the bid, and after that, the fate of 360 remaining workers should be clear.

The Israeli-Chinese consortium consists of the Israeli-based M.T. Abraham Group, China Machinery Engineering Corporation and China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd.