Skopje, 4 January 2024 (MIA) — The Trade Union of Air Traffic Controllers is expected to decide on a strike action until law authorites solve the case in which national air navigation service provider M-NAV air traffic controllers were attacked at work, the union's leader Aleksandar Tasevski said in a TV appearance on Thursday.

In a Sitel TV interview, Tasevski said the incident had caused outrage and M-NAV staff were considering the possibility of closing the sky for air traffic.

"A meeting will be held late tonight," Tasevski said. "The possibility of closing the entire airspace is not ruled out until the perpetrators of today's event are punished. Because, above all, we must protect each of our air traffic controller coworkers, each of this company's employees as well as the passengers who fly over."

Closing the skies, he added, would mean that planes that usually fly over the country's airspace would have to find alternative routes.

Tasevski said the air controllers' announced strikes in the past had been cancelled because they were hoping the situation in M-NAV would get better and also because they did not want to bring air travel to a standstill.

Asked whether, after the recent developments, passengers could safely get on a plane, Tasevski said, "Yes."

"Air traffic controllers will not allow anything to happen to any aircraft," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, a M-NAV employee, together with several other unindentified persons, physically attacked three other M-NAV employees at their place of work.

"Today, Jan. 4, 2024, around 3:15 pm, a member of the M-NAV staff reported to the Petrovec Police Station that there had been a violation of public order and peace in the building," the Ministry of Interior said in a press release.

It added that an employee identified by the initials B.N., together with several unindentified persons, physically attacked P.B., E.K. and B.R., also employees of M-NAV.

Police were immediately sent to the premises to investigate and take action to solve the case.

In a Facebook post shortly after the incident, Tasevski wrote that several vehicles had come to the air traffic control facility.

People got out, went inside, started to argue, and then attacked air traffic control employees, he said.

He noted that the people were not stopped by any of the security guards on duty.

The attack happened after the union leader's press conference earlier on Thursday.

He had said that twenty to thirty air traffic controllers and their assistants working for M-NAV would start resigning from their management positions in response to the latest job announcement in this institution.

He also said he had been notified Wednesday by the Department for Violent Crime at the Ministry of Interior that M-NAV directors Fahrudin Hamidi and Fasim Deari reported an email of his because of "feeling of threat to their life security" under Article 144 paragraph two of the Criminal Code.

"I most responsibly claim that the content of this email does not contain anything resembling a threat," he told reporters.

He said it was misinterpreted deliberately so it could be used against him as union leader and the air controllers who "dared to raise their voices and show they are ready to stand up for the defense and protection of their profession, to stop the clientelism and the hiring of unnecessary and unprofessional employees." mr/