"BOROVO" EMPLOYEES WILL BE GIVEN SEVERANCE PAYS

ZAGREB, Jan 17 (Hina) - None of the 2,320 redundant workers of the Borovo footwear factory from Vukovar will be fired without severance pays and the factory will continue paying their pension and health insurance contributions until a final solution for the payment of 45 million kuna of severance pays (around 20,000 kuna per employee) is found. #L# This was stated by the vice-chairman of the Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) for corporate management, Rudjer Friganovic, at a news conference on Friday. Friganovic, who also chairs the factory's supervisory committee, said the workers could expect their severance pays by the end of March this year at the latest. The funds should be secured by selling the factory's immovable assets. Friganovic said it was difficult to estimate the value of the factory's assets, but that it was certainly lower than its so- called book value from 1991, when the company was transformed into a stock company and its value estimated at some 2.3 billion kuna. In the past four years the factory has managed to stabilise its business and operate with profit. The company's income last year totalled around 250 million kuna while expenses amounted to 245 million kuna. Of the pre-war 22,000 employees, the company now employs 1,300 workers in its production and sale segments. Of this number, 650 employees work in Vukovar, 450 in outlets in other Croatian towns and 200 in outlets in Slovenia. The factory's annual production includes around 200,000 pairs of leather shoes and boots, around 200,000 pairs of rubber shoes and boots, as well as other rubber products (belts and the like). Considering these results and the government's intention to give severance pays to all laid-off workers, "the instigation of tensions, strikes and the like in the case of Borovo is unnecessary", Friganovic said. (hina) rml sb