Serbia - Work stoppage blocked by the police (2012)

Workers employed by the Nibens group from Belgrade, the largest Serbian road construction company in charge of building and maintaining numerous roads and highways in the country, organised a number of work stoppages throughout 2011 due to unpaid wages. During the work stoppage in August, police blocked the entrance to five companies operating within the Nibens group (Vojvodinaput-Bačkaput, PZP Beograd, PZP Kragujevac, PZP Niš and PZP Vranje), preventing the workers from blocking road works on various sites in which the company was operating. In an open letter sent to the Minister of the Interior Ivica Dačić on 12 August, the President of the Autonomous Trade Union of Road Maintenance Workers of Serbia (SSPS) Sonja Vukanović called for an immediate end to the repressive measures against the workers of the Nibens group, stating that the police has been preventing the freedom of movement of workers, interrogating trade union representatives, and exercising physical coercion on the workers. The SPSS condemned the government’s decision to limit the freedom of movement for workers of the Nibens group, and has also addressed the ILO and other international institutions on the issue.