Salary negotiations

Transport Minister Radu Berceanu is going to look into the proposals made by railway employees in an attempt to reduce the number of people to be made redundant.

Registering losses of 600-700 million lei annually, the Romanian railway company should make redundant between 7,300 and 8,000 employees, ministry officials say, calling on the trade unions to come up with a concrete plan of reducing spending.


Some of the solutions proposed by the trade unions include the cancellation of debts registered by the railway system, by transferring them to the public debt and the allotment of an annual subsidy, the equivalent of 0.35-0.40% of the GDP and forbidding road transport by mini-buses on distances longer than 100 km.

Other measures include exemption from paying excise duties for the maintenance of road infrastructure, purchasing electricity on the free market, recovering the investment made by railway transport operators with the training of personnel, forbidding the employment of personnel who cumulate the pension and the salary.

The debates on the restructuring program have only managed to postpone redundancies in the Romanian railway system until September the 15th. Light on what is going on will be cast after Thursday’s talks, which will be held against the backdrop of new warnings made by the trade unions.

Unionists say they will call an all out strike if no compromise is reached. Apparently, it is very difficult to reach a compromise in the context in which the managing board of the Romanian Railway Company does not agree either to redundancies or to layoffs, saying the measure of making employees redundant will not solve the problem of the losses that have been registered, but will jeopardize the safety of travellers, given that 10,000 other employees of the Romanian Railway Company were made redundant in spring.

1.5 billion lei, Romanian Railway Company's losses

In another move, minister Berceanu is skeptical that a balance can be stricken between the income and spending budgets, without redundancies.

In 2010, the losses registered by the Romanian Railway Company are estimated to amount to 1.5 billion lei, and its restructuring will help the ministry save approximately 800 million lei in 2011.

Trade unions at national level, haven’t reached an agreement with the government on the minimum salary next year. Trade unionists were discontent with the results of Monday’s meeting with the government, just like with the talks they had last week when the government proposed to them a minimum salary of 640 lei.

That happens in the context in which trade unions want a minimum salary of 705 lei and say the salary increase that has been announced for 2011 will not compensate this year’s 25% cut.

(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).