Around 100 employees of the gas supply company Gradska Plinara Zagreb (GPZO) protested on Thursday due to losing the job of supplying gas to Zagreb households. They are demanding that Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic and the CEO of Zagreb Holding, Ivan Novakovc, urgently dismiss the current management.

The only ones destabilising the company are the management led by Jeronim Tomas, who together with his advisors put the company in this situation, said trade unionist Tomislav Rajkovic.

The protesters demand that Tomasevic and Novakovic appoint a new management that can deal with the new problems and the current situation GPZO finds itself in.

“Criminal business decisions”

Rajkovic said they were also protesting to inform the citizens of Zagreb that there is no better company for gas supply than GPZO and to encourage them to continue their co-operation with GPZO at the same or similar price as the one offered by Medjimurje-plin.

Trade unionist Vlatko Kottnig said that the current management of GPZO does not enjoy the trust of the employees and makes “criminal business decisions”

The company needs a management with experts from the energy sector who understand the business and can offer an acceptable price to citizens who “crave” a deal and want to keep GPZO as their supplier, he said.

The Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA) decided on 19 May that Medjimurje-plin will take over the supply of households in Zagreb from GPZO, as the company offered a lower price in the tender.

GPZO announces lawsuit

Following the protest, GPZO stated that employees’ salaries and other material rights would be paid regularly, that ongoing operations would be regular and that the results of HERA’s public tender would be implemented from October.

“After the announcement of the tender results, we are conducting analyses and preparing for competition in the market,” the company said, adding that it is determined to legally fight HERA’s decision as it is neither lawful nor in the interest of secure gas supply to households, which is why it is preparing a lawsuit.

The company said that it has also protected the interests of workers and the security of gas supply in 2021, when a loss of 70 million euros was incurred due to harmful gas procurement contracts.