Former workers of Cetinje shoe factory Košuta protested outside Montenegro’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue on 2 November 2026, seeking a solution to buy additional service years for 63 workers so they can retire. Dijana Vujović, a representative of the former employees, said Minister Naida Nišić had not provided a promised plan by 15 October.
The protest resumed at the ministry after the workers received no response to their request for a meeting with Nišić. They submitted the request on Tuesday but, by the time of the protest, had not been told whether it had been accepted or rejected. Ministry security told them the minister was travelling to Albania; Vujović said she did not believe this and knew Nišić would travel to Brussels the following day.
Vujović and 15 colleagues were determined to wait outside the ministry until further notice. Anđela Ivanović, the minister’s chief of staff, eventually met them. “We are not satisfied with the answer because they have no solution,” Vujović said.
Ivanović told the workers that finding a solution was difficult because the law on buying service years was abolished in 2011. According to Vujović, Ivanović said other institutions would need to be consulted because a total of 800 people in Montenegro were seeking service-year top-ups.
The ministry proposed that the Košuta workers meet again in two months, but they rejected the offer. They asked for a meeting by the end of that month and discussions on how to return the law to parliamentary procedure.
Vujović said the required funding would be limited. “That cannot cost 500,000 euros,” she said, describing it as a minimum amount that would allow workers to receive pensions. She said the employees had earned their pensions through contributions to society, the state and the factory, adding that they had not left their jobs but had been harmed by the state and institutions that ran the bankruptcy.
The workers last met Nišić on 1 October, when she asked for 15 days to consider what could be done about the top-ups. Their latest protest followed the expiry of that period without a response. Bankruptcy at Košuta lasted from 1996 to 2001, when the workers’ campaign began.
In December 2024, the government decided to pay 2.5 million euros in unpaid wages to 699 workers. The remaining 63 are seeking service-year top-ups to qualify for retirement.
