November 14, 2019 - Co-owner of Montenegro stars hotel group, Mr Žarko Radulovic, says that optimization of job posts in that company is underway. The optimization envisages the reduction of those who work during winter. According to Mr Radulovic, that means that between 130 and 170 employees will be dismissed. However, he claims that the salaries of those who remain will be increased by 20%.
“We’ve started the optimization process. Since 2014, we’ve had a surplus of 130-170 employees. We need optimization now, in order to increase salaries for those who remain in the company. Fewer employees, higher salaries. We have to do that. The goal of the optimization of workforce and costs is to spill them over into a personal income”, says Mr Radulovic for CdM.
Salaries will be by 15-20% higher.
“The company is doing a great job, revenues are on the rise. Every year we generate a profit of €70.000 to up to €1 million. Our fund is stable and is going to get bigger”, said Mr Radulovic.
He points out that 35% of the gross turnover accounts for operational costs.
“Salary fund increases between €300.000 and €450.000 every year. It’s one of the sources of the increase in pays. The second source is optimization. Those with the lowest salaries will be given priority. So far, we’ve had around 590 employees in the winter period. We are going to bring that number down to 430-440”, says Mr Radulovic.
He adds that the company has great people, willing to work.
“We didn’t want to fire employees and, therefore, we’ve had a surplus of them in the past 4-5 years. In order to “save” them during the winter season, we’ve introduced a system of unpaid leave. They had their employment relationship, pension and social insurance for the whole month. We paid their apartments and an employee could eat three meals a day even when he/she wasn’t working”, says Mr Radulovic.
However, they realized it wasn’t a very good solution and that everybody was dissatisfied.
“The analysis showed that this solution hadn’t brought many benefits. That’s why we decided to carry out the optimization process”, concluded Mr Radulovic.
Text by CDM on November 14, 2019, read more here.
To read more about business in Montenegro, follow TMN's dedicated page.
