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"The shameful Supreme Court verdict on the revision which is not only the cause of the greatest damage to the trade union movement in our country, but also stands out for its uniqueness as something that has not happened either in Europe or in the world and which was adopted by the three Supreme Court judges who were publicly pointed out and named by the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM), is now abolished!. The struggle that we have been strongly and patiently waging for the past eight months has enabled us to obtain a repetition of the proceedings and with that the repeal of all the legal acts that led to the confiscation of the Workers' Home. Now, during this press-conference I want to send an appeal to the new Government to not follow the examples of the previous Governments that planned and implemented actions and policies against the welfare and interest of the workers’ by taking away their Workers' Home", said the president of SSM, Slobodan Trendafilov.
In continuation of the press-conference, Trendafilov explained, that the proposal of SSM for retry of the proceedings that led to the confiscation of their building, was based on proposing new evidence to the court that was available to the trade union through its archive and which dated back to 1948. The evidence was accepted by the Supreme Court, so as a result new decision was adopted with directions to abolish all previous verdicts, including the scandalous Supreme Court verdict on the Revision submitted by the state, which as we said above not only led to the confiscation of the Workers' Home from the workers’, but also its adoption was solely to the detriment of the entire labor movement and the detriment of SSM with the sole purpose of destroying the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) as the oldest, biggest and the only representative trade union in the country.
"Macedonian workers’, the justice and SSM in just eight months have defeated the actions of corrupt judges who are part of a highly corrupted system, which as we all know enjoys only about 2% trust according to the published public opinion polls. Fortunately for us, not all judges are in the same basket and want to be part of that corrupt system. I want to especially thank Judge Olja Krsticheska from the Basic Court Skopje, who made it possible for this repetition to happen as quickly as possible by accepting SSM’s Motion for Repetition of the procedure through an expedited proceeding. Then I want to thank the President of the Supreme Court, Judge Besa Ademi, who allowed, of course in accordance with the legal provisions, to be given priority to this case, so today we can have the result we announced or the abolition of this shameful verdict. I want to repeat once again that not everything is lost when it comes to our judiciary system, that we have some dignified judges, professional judges and judges who work in accordance with the laws of Republic of Macedonia there, like the two judges who took part in the Judicial council who adopted the Revision and ruled against SSM, and from the beginning were against the passing of such a shameful verdict, but were outvoted and like the judges who now accepted our Motion for repetition of the procedure. I also want to thank all the judges who since the beginning or since 2005 were involved in this 30-year lasting process, both through the Basic Court Skopje and the Court of Appeal Skopje and who were always on the side of the justice and on the side of the truth, with their rulings that the Workers' Home is built thanks to the workers' wages and that the construction was financed thanks to the membership fees from the SSM’s trade union members”, pointed out Trendafilov.
As reminder, SSM last year was taken by surprise by a verdict that was announced this year in January 2024, and that meant taking the Workers' Home away from the workers’ and handing it over to the hands of the state.
"What I want to emphasize is that this process started back in 2005 and was initiated by the Government then led by Prime Minister Vlado Buchkovski and ended in 2023 by the Government led by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski. I once again appeal to the new Government, to not follow their examples of having policies that are anti-workers and that will lead to workers’ losing their Workers' Home, all this with the sole purpose of silencing their biggest representative in society, the biggest trade union in the Republic of Macedonia SSM, who as we all know have owned the Workers’ Home for decades. Adding to this I also want to publicly announce that we have also received the information that the application submitted by SSM to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has been accepted based on the violation of Article 1 of Protocol 1: Protection of property, which means that once again has been confirmed, this time from the international courts as well, that in this procedure the right to property has been violated. Someone’s ownership cannot be the subject of political and oligarchic games. Therefore we want to send a message that the Workers' Home belongs to the workers’ and only to them. And now is the turn of the new policy-makers to decide whether they will be friends or enemies to the workers’, by being friends or enemies to SSM", concluded Trendafilov.
I want to express my gratitude to all members of SSM, to the workers’ and to the citizens who gave their unreserved support to SSM in their fight against this injustice and to the members of SSM Council and SSM Presidency as well. Last but not least on my own behalf as President and on behalf of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) I want to thank our partners in this fight, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) for their solidarity, support and expertise during this process and also to SSM’s Lawyer Mr. Josif Filipovski”, finished his statement the President of SSM Slobodan Trendafilov.
