“We are hungry, deceived, on edge and tired of the promises of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, said more than 40 miners from Zenica who are waiting for their pension, which they became entitled to last year. Although they were informed in March that funds were approved for the payment of contributions, they are still pending. A large number of them live without any income for even 17 months.
Seventeen months have passed since not a single mark has been paid into their accounts. The disappointed, worried and tired faces of the Zenica miners speak louder than words. Although they met all the conditions for pension, they have not been paid for their seniority since 2009. For this reason, the PIO/MIO Fund keeps them in the system under the absurd label: “Pensioners on hold”. And life doesn’t wait. How to pay bills, how to buy food, medicine?
“I’ve been waiting for 15 months. I’m an RVI, wounded twice. I have to go to construction, to feed my family. Half of us don’t pay the bills. You pay for the electricity, let the rest be turned off. We have three options: to not let anyone enter the mine, to go on hunger strike here, to go in front of the government. This can’t be endured anymore,” says Semir Čajlaković.
In everything, they are further frustrated by the fact that in March the FBiH Government approved funds for the payment of contributions for 27 workers who acquired the conditions for retirement in 2025, and nothing has changed since then, i.e. the money has not been remitted.
“We have communicated through the ministry at least ten times and asked what about the funds?! In a few days they will be operational, in a few days they will be… they have been approved, and these people here have none of that,” says Nedžad Duraković, president of the Zenica RMU Trade Union.
The life of these people has become unbearable and financially unsustainable. Some of them work illegally, some cannot because of their health.
“You go from private to private. I worked from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for 50 KM. Even that is hard to find at this age, and you can’t work continuously because your back hurts, you’re tired, etc. It’s really hard,” Ahmet Kobilica tells us.
Others share similar fates.
“I work for two days, the next seven I’m sick. I can’t… my back. I had two spine surgeries, my wife is 100% disabled, I have to take care of myself, take care of medicine, I have to work… it kills me mentally. It kills me mentally because you’ve earned money, worked in the pit all your life… now instead of relaxing you have to work for a living wage,” says Munib Bulut.
This is like a nightmare, says one miner, who describes himself as a retired miner without a pension. And with health needs, they feel humiliated because they have to explain their status – as if they are the culprit. The system does not see them as people who have worked hard for three or four decades. It is very certain that the miners will appear in front of the Government of the Federation next week, they gave the ministry until Friday to respond.
“We will call families, everyone. We can’t do it anymore, we are waiting 17 months for a pension earned for 40 years. It’s hard… it’s ugly to say I have nothing to eat… but you’ve been told everything. You have no income and that’s it,” concludes Ramiz Batal.
After emerging from the darkness of the mining pit, the retired miners were greeted by a black reality in which the state reduces them to social cases. At the same time, the miners who are working on extracting the wide face from the Zenica mine have stopped all work because their salaries are late again. It is the middle of May, and they have not received their salary for April. If there is no reaction from the Ministry of Mining, the revolt of retired chamberlains is quite certain, he writes N1 BiH.
