Disagreements over unpaid pension contributions, severance and compensation continue to affect the restructuring of Montenegro’s Vektra Boka tourism company, as former employees challenge statements that proceeds from hotel sales have covered all outstanding worker obligations.
The Association of Vektra Boka Workers maintains that payments received from the disposal of hotel assets in Herceg Novi addressed only part of the company’s liabilities. It says some former employees remain unable to retire because their pension contributions have not been fully credited.
The association’s position contradicts earlier statements by a former union representative and a lawyer, who maintained that court-awarded employee claims had been settled following the sales of the Igalo and Plaža hotels.
The former union representative stated that the payments enabled approximately 50 former employees to retire after outstanding pension contributions were covered. The workers’ organisation disputes that these settlements resolved the claims of all former employees, arguing that substantial obligations remain outstanding.
Disputes over employment and pension entitlements
The association says former employees are still seeking recognition of employment periods, payment of pension contributions and compensation under the company’s collective bargaining and privatisation arrangements.
It has also rejected claims that former workers have no remaining entitlement to severance payments or other compensation.
A central issue is the distinction between liabilities confirmed through individual court judgments and broader employment-related obligations that remain contested. Settling claims established by specific judicial decisions does not necessarily mean that every former employee has received all amounts they consider outstanding.
The association has also referred to proceedings before Montenegro’s parliamentary commission responsible for overseeing privatisation, claiming that the body recommended termination of the Vektra Boka privatisation agreement. The legal status of that recommendation in relation to the completed hotel transactions has not been established.
Hotel transactions and outstanding liabilities
The sales of the Igalo and Plaža hotel properties have been presented as a means of addressing historical obligations and enabling the redevelopment of hospitality assets in Herceg Novi. The latest disagreement has brought attention back to the distribution of proceeds from the transactions and the liabilities that remain unpaid.
The company’s restructuring has involved competing interests among former employees, creditors and investors, with its hotel assets playing a central role in the disputes. For investors and potential hotel developers, unresolved employment and property claims represent potential legal and reputational exposure, including where individual asset transactions have already been completed.
No independently verified reconciliation currently establishes the total value of outstanding employee claims or confirms that all former workers have received full compensation.
Clarification will depend on reconciling payroll and pension contribution records, court judgments, the allocation of hotel-sale proceeds and the outcomes of any ongoing legal proceedings. Until these obligations are established, the assertion that Vektra Boka has fully settled its employee liabilities remains contested.
