Zenica miners spend second night underground in protest over unpaid wages

The same problem with validating health insurance cards, and consequently accessing medical treatment, is also affecting miners in the towns of Kakanj and Breza. According to Alic, miners from Kakanj have announced a protest outside the Zenica-Doboj Canton Health Insurance Fund headquarters for tomorrow.

"Nothing has changed. We have received no indication that the situation will be resolved, so the workers who remained underground spent another night there. They are showing remarkable determination and refuse to come to the surface. They no longer trust anyone, not even us in the union. We have all been let down," Alic said.

He noted that four-member crews continue to perform mandatory safety operations during every shift, including ventilating the methane-filled mine and pumping out water that accumulates underground, to ensure the safety of both the workers and the mine itself.

The Zenica miners had been promised that their May salaries would be paid by early July and their June salaries by July 25. However, they have received neither payment, while wages for July will soon also become due. Under the applicable regulations, July salaries were also supposed to be paid by July 25.

The Raspotocje and Stara Jama pits, the only two remaining operational sites of the Zenica mine, are both scheduled for closure. Work is currently limited to removing mining equipment, which has already been sold to the Kreka coal mine in Tuzla.

At present, 110 of the mine's approximately 450 remaining employees have been declared surplus to operational requirements. However, they cannot formally be laid off and registered as unemployed until funding is secured for their social programme, including the payment of severance packages and the settlement of pension and service contributions.

Because of the wage delays, workers at the mine have also suspended work on removing the equipment.

Some of them have now resorted to one of the most drastic forms of protest by refusing to leave the mine, putting their own health and lives at risk.