The RTH miners, who staged a token strike last Monday, have received only around half of their pay for January and are no longer ready to accept assurances about when the rest will be paid out, said head of the RTH strike committee Anton Lisec.

While the mine has secured money for wages, the BKS bank, which is owed almost EUR 3m, has still not unblocked the accounts of the company operating the mine.

RTH CEO Bojan Jelen expressed regret that his company had failed to get the bank to unblock the account, but further talks are scheduled for today.

The company has already paid out some EUR 370,000 for January pay, but they need another EUR 300,000 to pay them in full.

Jelen moreover believes that the industrial action will not gain the miners anything and expressed regret that the strike committee had not listened to the management's arguments on Friday.

Along with the full pay for January, the striking miners want severance pay for 135 redundant workers and urge the state as the owner to state its position on the mine's operation and examine the possibility of finding employment for laid off workers in state-owned companies.

Infrastructure and Spatial Planning Minister Samo Omerzel will visit the mine before the beginning of the strike to try to convince the workers to call off the industrial action.