Sirotanović worked in the coal mine in Breza. In 1947 Sirotanović set a record in coal extracting. On 24 July 1949, Sirotanović participated in an inter-mine competition at the mine at Kreka. He and his eight-man crew mined in an 8-hour shift 128 carloads of brown coal, that is, 152 tons of coal in a single shift, some 40 tonnes more than the first record of Soviet 'hero of labour' Alexey Stakhanov, although this is in dispute. The achievements of the Yugoslav miners were published on news front pages for weeks. In September 1949, the first "formal meeting of the initiators of the movement for high productivity" ("svečani sastanak inicijatora pokreta za visoku produktivnost") was held, in which famous productive working record-holders participated, such as Alija Sirotanović, Nikola Skobić, Risto Mijatović, Antun Bičić, Alojz Petek, and others.