Steel maker's unions, Esmark reach deal

Steel maker's unions, Esmark reach deal

BELGRADE -- Esmark has signed an agreement with delayed effect on a coordinated collective agreement that should increase salaries in Zelezara by some 25 percent.

The U.S company is currently in negotiations with the Serbian government on a strategic partnership in the Smederevo steel mill Zelezara.

Sasa Colic, the president of the Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions at the steel mill, said in a statement to Tanjug that the deal will take effect after an agreement on strategic partnership has been signed with Esmark Inc.

Colic said that he expects this to happen by February 1, as announced earlier.

Colic said that the agreement stipulates a new price of labour, which will amount to RSD 125.31 - 25 percent more than the current RSD 100.01.

On December 5, 2014, the Privatization Agency of the Republic of Serbia issued an invitation to tender for a strategic partner with a capital input in the steel mill, where the government is to preserve a 19.99 percent stake in the ownership structure.

A total of three bids arrived in the tender, and only one offer, by the US company Esmark Inc., was valid.

The current production at the Smederevo steel mill is worth somewhere between EUR 300 and 320 million. At full capacity, it could go up to EUR 1.4 billion.