The Independent Trade Union of Miners of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) will organize a protest rally on Wednesday, in front of the FBiH Government building in Sarajevo due to the situation in the Zenica Brown Coal Mine and the fact that the miners have not yet received their January and February wages, Union leader Sinan Husic told Fena news agency.

The protest will be organized in accordance with last week's conclusion of the Union Management Board, which made the decision on Wednesday, and the protest will include miners from all seven mines of PE Elektroprivreda BiH Group. The arrival of more than 300 miners is expected at the rally.

Husic pointed out that on Tuesday morning, they once again sent a letter to the addresses of the FBiH Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry, PE Elektroprivreda BiH and the management of Brown Coal Mine Zenica, reminding them that enough time has already passed since the meeting in Kakanj.

The meeting was held on March 14, and then it was agreed to find a legal way to pay the miners of Zenica.

“The basic demand at tomorrow's protest will be the payment of wages for January and February, as well as compensation for a hot meal for those two months.

“We expect that the Elaboration on the current state and prospects of the Zenica Brown Coal Mine will be completed during the day,” said Husic, who emphasized that he would ask the authorities for a final decision on the status of the Zenica mine.

That is, he added, whether, based on the information from the Elaboration, the implementation of the Reorganization and Restructuring Program adopted at the end of last year will be continued, with an emphasis on optimization of human resources, or whether production in Zenica will be suspended.

As part of the implementation of this program, around 200 miners have already left the company in the past three months due to retirement, voluntary departure or declaration of technological redundancy.