Workers of ZIT are demanding a management change: "They tell us the job of transshipment of containers is not profitable"

Employees of the company Railway Integral Transport (Zeleznicki integralnni transport d.o.o. - ZIT) started a protest today in front of the Government of Serbia with the request to replace the current management.

As Zoran Basanovic, chief trustee of ASNS ZIT, told eKapija, the company was prevented from working, because "the management considers that the job is unprofitable".

- And ZIT has been engaged in business in the field of rail and road transport for 50 years, mainly container transport, otherwise a business that is in great expansion both in our country and in the world and is one of the main factors in the economic development of every country because it enables the shortest connections with port terminals - says Basanovic.

According to him, the new management led by director Jovica Vasiljevic was brought in on January 15, after the former director retired, and their first decision was to not register trucks, forklifts and cranes, the basic assets for the company's work.

- Vasiljevic was brought in from the position of city secretary for public transport, he does not have the background in the branch, and he brought with him nine people with no experience and no interest in the job. Their next move was in March, when they requested the closure of the container terminal in the Makis-Belgrade marshalling yard railway station, practically closing the company - says Basanovic.

He says that the terminal at the marshalling yard has not been working since May 22.

- They closed it by blocking the account and informing the clients that the terminal could not work due to financial blocking, which actually lasted just one day, because after that new payments arrived. And now the contracted jobs we had with NIS, Linglong, Zijin, Meita, Hemofarm, are all on hold - our interlocutor says.

Basanovic is convinced that the final goal of such moves is privatization.

He says that in addition to replacing the director and appointing a new one, the employees are also requesting the opening of a new terminal in Makis.

- That terminal, in which the state invested EUR 6.5 million, was given to us due to the relocation from the Sava amphitheater, but it has been on hold with 90% completion for two years - says our interlocutor and adds that they also addressed their problems to the Railways as to the parent company, as well as to the Department for Railways and Intermodal Transport of the line ministry, and to the Minister and the President himself.

The company Railway Integral Transport operates as a subsidiary of Serbian Railways JSC, with an ownership share of 7.48% and 92.52% owned by the state.

B. P.

Železnički integralni transport Beograd

Železnice Srbije a.d. Beograd

Railway integral transport

ZIT doo

Serbian Railways

ASNS ZIT

railway station Makis Belgrade marshalling yard

Zoran Basanovic

Jovica Vasiljevic

protest

container terminal

intermodal terminal Makis