TO PROTECT the good name of their company, the management of Neusiedler SCP, a foreign-owned paper manufacturing company from Ružomberok, has launched lawsuits against five of its former employees.
The employees were dismissed at the end of 2004 for breaking the Labour Code by giving false information about the pay of production workers to the media.
The company is demanding that the group pay Sk20 million (€516,000) in damages and publish an apology in 3 national newspapers. The former employees are also suing Neusiedler SCP (now renamed Mondi Business SCP) for unfair dismissal.
One of the dismissed employees, Jozef Daniš, told the TASR news agency that he believed the real reason for their dismissal was that they had organized a petition for higher wages in the company, which was signed by 1200 production workers, more than 90 percent of the total workforce.
The dismissed workers then organized a new union at the paper works, Papier, which now has 250 members. It exists alongside the original union, which Daniš claims is ineffective in defending workers' interests.
Preliminary hearings in the company's lawsuit will take place at Ružomberok District Court on 25 February.
Compiled by Roger Heyes from press reports
TheSlovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the informationpresented in its Flash News postings.
