Usje workers demand dividends

The court in Macedonian capital Skopje is to rule shortly on a claim of workers of the local Usje cement plan, owned by a Greek-Swiss joint venture of cement producers Titan Cement and Holcim, that they were entitled to dividend, it was reported on January 16, 2004.  The Usje trade union filed the claim in July 2002 after rounds of unsuccessful negotiations with the foreign management. Workers used to take the average amount of four monthly salaries as dividend before the plant's privatisation in 1998 and they have the legal right to continue receiving it, the union chairman, Nikola Velkovski, said.  Foreign buyers ought to obey local legislation, which postulates that workers can receive part of the profit, Velkovski said and added that large sums were syphoned from Macedonia, because foreign owners did not pay dividend to workers.