The Federation of Independent Trade Unions operating in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) assessed that there is no justification for any decision on a significant increase in the price of electricity in this entity, warning that if the price of this energy source increases, thousands of workers will be on the streets.
The unions especially point out the fact that the increase in the price of electricity is not justified at the end of 2021, which was marked by a mass departure of workers and an enormous increase in the cost of living.
The President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions Selvedin Satorovic called on the FBiH Government to start working in the interest of workers and all other citizens, and to start making decisions to protect their economic position and at least somewhat mitigate all negative consequences of the pandemic. Recalling that recently miners were on the street seeking protection of their rights, the union predicts that, unless the attitude of state-owned power utility EPBiH on increasing the price of electricity changes, thousands of workers from the industrial and service sectors will be on the street, as they will not be held hostage to EPBiH’s desire to make extra profit.
Regarding the other BiH entity – Republic of Srpska (RS), earlier this week, the representatives of RS Government, businesses and power utility ERS agreed that the new price of electricity for commercial consumers will increase to 53 euros/ MWh. RS Government said that the increase was unavoidable due to the situation in energy exchanges in Europe, adding that the consumers in RS will still pay less for electricity than those in FBiH and other countries in the region.
