Without gloves and boots in the Trepca mine

This is the situation of some workers in the Trepca metallural plant, according to Agim Rullan, overseer of miners on the 10th horizon of this mine.

Lacks, according to him, have become more pronounced in the past three months, but he does not talk about reasons.

From the company, which has once been the engine of Kosovo's economy and beyond, workers take only a few tools.

“Lumba light bulb and helmet”, says Liridon Hajdari, who has been working in the mine for 12 years.

“Helmeta is stronger and purchased less frequently. The rest... with boots, clothes, gloves. We shouldn't buy them, but there isn't. And, rather buy it yourself than work without it”, he tells Radio Free Europe.

Personal equipment is not the only problem for miners, who often have to get up to 500 feet [800 m] below the surface of the earth.

Work tools are also very old, says the head of the Minors' Union, Ibrahim Jonuzi.

“due to the lack of capital investments and investments in labour tools, miners are found in a difficult situation and working conditions are extremely serious”, he tells Radio Free Europe.

The nation's leadership did not answer Radio Free Europe questions about lack of personal equipment and mining tools.

The metallural Trepca plant is located in Mitrovica, with sectors extending to the northern and southern part of the city. It numbers about 1,300 workers.

The main products of its mines are lead and chain concentrations of silver, gold, and other minerals.

“type black”

Hajdari, who works as xetear on the 11th horizon of the mine, is not even pleased with the pay he receives.

It is paid around 750 euros a month, and says that amount is inconsistent in relation to its difficulties.

In the space where I work, the air is very heavy, there are lots of gases, which are made up of smoke, dust, and humidity. We, when we finish our work and surface, spit in mourning. I don't smoke cigarettes, I do sports, but still, the color of the saliva juice is”, says 33-year-old. ” Only the air of the mine to suck it up, is quite”

Jonuzi, from the Mitrator Union, says the state of employees in this regard is difficult even by high inflation, which has hit Kosovo for more than a year.

“Earlier, the salary has been better, but considering rising inflation and prices, the miners' salary is insufficient”, he says.

Moreover, Jonuz adds, miners are often affected by occupational diseases, and they have neither health nor vital health insurance.

This week, Kosovo Police have confirmed the death of a worker at the facilities of the Trepca plant.

Police investigators, with the prosecutor's permission, are making investigations into identifying and clarifying the random circumstances, but there is still no information about it.

There are also incidents of technical nature from time to time. In late September last year, because of an electrical power defect in the Stantergus Mine Part of Trepca more than 120 workers have remained confined for a time in the depths of over 800m underground.

Even “discriminated against”

But according to Jonuzi, the biggest discrimination against miners occurs after retirement.

Most of them receive a pension of 100 euros a month, since they do not have all the required work experience especially during the 1990s, when Kosovo was under violent measures of the then regime of Serbia.

Labour experience and educational qualifications are the main criteria for classifying the degree of pensioners in Kosovo.

Under the Law on Pension Schemes, the pension-paying right in Kosovo lies with those who have reached the age of 65 and have at least 15 years of working stages before 1999.

Jonuzi says most miners, prior to the 1998/99 war, have had work experience of up to nine years.

And that's why miners end up retired in old age, which is about 100 euros a month.

Despite working in 1981, Agim Rullani, 60, will retire for five more years with only 100 euros a month.

I don't have 15 years of work experience before the war. I started working in 1981, but in 1990, Serbia's violent measures fired us. These nine years of leaving are no longer known as a stage. So I've only got nine years of experience, that don't allow me to retire as a contributor. With 100 euros I retire”, Rullani says.

A Short History of Trepca

The Trepca metallural complex, until the 1990s when the political situation has deteriorated, has been calculated as one of the largest companies not only in Kosovo, but also in the territory of then Yugoslavia.

With around 20,000 workers, it has been named the main pillar of Kosovo's economy and the former Yugoslavia.

According to Kosovo institutions' data, from 1945 to the period before 1990, about 600 thousand tonnes of ore a year have been mined.

The fall of production has started in the years of naught90s, when Serbia's then regime has imposed violent measures in Kosovo, closing nearly all companies and institutions in the country.

But Trepca has been carrying out problems even after the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999.

The company has never managed to set up the country's economic development.

Old machines over 50 years and lack of maintenance have become constant problems.

Trepca is expected to pass the Kosovo government's Sovereign Fund.

This fund is expected to take over all of Kosovo's strategic assets, to then invest in increased value.

The Law on the Sovereign Fund is expected to be adopted within this year.