Former Employees of Business.hr Warned of Economic Crime

Former employees of Business.hr and BMG today requested protection of their acquired rights and payment of salaries from the relevant institutions at a press conference.

They reminded that the company Business Media Grupa (BMG), publisher of the daily newspaper Business.hr and the weekly Aktual, terminated the employment contracts of 35 employees on November 7, offering them to work for a fee of 1500 kuna over the next three months. At the time of termination, they say, BMG owes workers four to five salaries, and former employees warn that this is already the second time in five months that the publisher of Business.hr and Aktual is going bankrupt and leaving debts to employees and suppliers.

– “This is a drastic case of violation of workers’ rights. Labor inspections are doing their job catastrophically, especially when it comes to the media,” said Zdenko Duka, head of HND.

At the conference, criminal charges were announced for acts in the domain of economic crime, where responsible persons Amir Šibić, Andrija Kević, and Mujo Selimović transferred intangible assets in the form of publishing rights to other companies of which they are the owners, thus continuing to generate income, while failing to pay outstanding claims has harmed employees and the state for amounts in the millions, which will be determined by the investigation.

– “We must ask ourselves why the numerous complaints we sent to the state inspectorate have not yet borne fruit? Inspectors went to the field, established illegalities and violations during salary payments, but solutions from the inspectorate are still not arriving? Who is protecting Amir Šibić, Andrija Kević, and Mujo Selimović? Is the so-called state apparatus so corrupt that inspectors need three months to write and mail one solution?” emphasized former editor-in-chief of Business.hr, Josip Jagić.

Former employees are demanding an investigation into whether BMG sold newspaper brands to entrepreneur Marko Lučić, as they believe there are reasonable suspicions that the actual owners of the newspapers will remain Andrija Kević and Mujo Selimović, the previous co-owners of two companies that they drove into bankruptcy, leaving behind millions in debts.

– “We consider the proposal for journalists to register for unemployment benefits particularly scandalous, as this would practically mean the state is paying salaries to business newspapers. This is a proposal that undermines the freedom of entrepreneurship and the protection of workers’ rights, which the journalists of Business.hr have always advocated through their articles,” say the employees.

– “Our case is instructive, as it once again shows that the crisis in Croatian media is not only a consequence of the difficult economic situation in the country but also of the owners’ malversations at the expense of journalistic earnings, from which almost no editorial office in the country has been spared,” they concluded.