Employees of Kosovo Telecom threatened the government with protests and disruption to telecoms services, if the government does not take action against a private company it accuses of funnelling money.
Exit News reported funds were withdrawn from a private called Dardafon. President of the Telecom Workers’ Union, Lamih Balaj said during a press conference today (November 2) that the operations and employees of Kosovo telecom were endangered due to the missing funds.
Balaj said the union gave the government 72 hours to produce a solution, or face consequences “never seen” before. He added employees did not care whether the unspecified sum would be transferred from the government or from the oligarch Blerim Devolli who is a majority shareholder in Daradafon (operates as Z-Mobile).
Z-Mobile and Kosovo Telecom clashed in 2009, when the former accused the latter of failing to provide sufficient SIM cards and 3G/4G services, breaching a contract between the two. In December 2016, the London Court of International Arbitration ruled in favour of Z-Mobile and ordered Kosovo Telecom to pay around €30 million in compensation.