Serbia: TV Avala Employees Step Up Strike Action

On Friday the employees of TV Avala, one of Serbia's national broadcasters, attempted to air a programme explaining their strike.

After fifteen days of striking, the broadcaster's workforce decided on Friday to interrupt regular programming and inform viewers about their demand for unpaid wages.

Thirty minutes later, Mane Sijan, the broadcaster's programme manager, broke into the broadcasting room, expelled the employees and locked himself inside in order to broadcast the scheduled programme.

Sijan called police to expel the strikers from the building. Police officers came to the building Friday afternoon and observed the situation.

Since December 22, the halls of Avala have been largely empty and the broadcaster has been operating at a minimum level. Regular programming has nevertheless been maintained, with the exception of live shows and news.

After more than two weeks of strikes, however, Avala employees on Friday pledged to radicalise their strike until they are given the five salaries they are owed.

"The radicalisation of the strike was not the wish of the employees, but rather a consequence of the owners' decision to ignore our problems," an employee statement said.  

The company’s board held a meeting on December 29 to discuss the issue and offered to pay the five back salaries by the end of January, but the employees rejected the offer and insist that six salaries should be paid by the end of the month.

TV Avala began broadcasting in 2006 after obtaining a national frequency but has faced financial problems for years. The broadcaster's financial records for 2010, which Balkan Insight has obtained, show that the station owed €25.7 million in short-term loans, services and credits while its income for that year was only €2.6 million.

The current ownership structure consists of businessman Danko Djunic, who owns 45.65 per cent, Austrian company Greenberg Invest, which owns 48.41 per cent, media mogul Zeljko Mitrovic, who owns 4.95 per cent and the Economic Institute, which has 0.99 per cent.

The station was the subject of a critical report by Serbia’s anti-corruption council on September 29, which complained that Avala’s ownership was not transparent.

The council said it believed that Mitrovic “has the majority share in TV Avala” through Greenberg Invest. If true, this might be a violation of the country's broadcasting law, which prohibits any one individual from multiple ownership of broadcasters.