The BSE, investigated by the Council for Fighting Discrimination

• The BSE officials claim that the Bucharest Stock Exchange is not facing labor lawsuits

Last year"s layoffs at the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) caused the company more problems that it would have expected even in its most pessimistic scenarios.

After losing in court the lawsuits against its former employees, and being forced to take them back in, after having laid them off, the Bucharest Stock Exchange recently came to the attention of the National Council for Fighting Discrimination (CNCD), which decided to open an investigation at the headquarters of the BSE, after one of its employees filed a complaint against the latter.

The representatives of the CNCD said:

"In 2011, an employee of the BSE submitted a complaint with us alleging discrimination against him. According to the provisions of the article 20, paragraph 4, of Government Ordinance no. 137/2000 concerning the prevention and sanctioning of any types of discrimination (republished), which stipulates that the solution to a complaint must be made by subpoenaing both parties, we inform you that the subpoena procedure has been carried out, and both parties were present at the hearing. Also, it has been decided to perform an investigation at the headquarters of the institution that the complaint was filed against". The date for the investigation has not yet been set, as the parties involved have requested for it to take place after August 20th.

However, this is not the first time that the Bucharest Stock Exchange has been the subject of a complaint with the Council against Discrimination. According to the officials of the institution, in 2010, the employees of the BSE have sent two notifications to the Council, following which the company was sanctioned with a warning.

At the time, the officials of the CNCD have found "the existence of discriminatory acts by failure to pay the 8th March bonus". The petitioners notified the council of the fact that they were also discriminated by not receiving the Christmas bonus, but the Council disagreed.

Contacted by BURSA, the representatives of the BSE did not provide a concrete answer on the investigation of the CNCD, and mentioned that, "in case the BSE will be involved in lawsuits, it will provide adequate information on this case", as it is required to report the lawsuits, due to it being a public company.

The representatives of the Bucharest Stock Exchange have also said that the BSE does not currently have any work related lawsuits, as the previous ones were extinguished after they were won in court and the two female employees were reintegrated in the team of the BSE (after being fired in March 2010 by the former general manager). Currently, one of the former female employees has expressed her wish to end the employment relationship with the BSE by mutual agreement, the representatives of the BSE have said.

Market sources who did not wish to be named, claimed, however, that the Bucharest Stock Exchange was not only forced to rehire the employees that were laid off, but also to compensate them with the amount of the increased salaries, adjusted and updated, as well as with any other rights that they would have been entitled to between the date of their layoff and their effective reintegration. The sources also claim that the BSE had to pay substantial amounts to lawyers that represented it in the lawsuits filed by its former employees and to bear the attorney fees.

At the end of July 2010, the management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange has announced that it is considering a 10-20% percent cut of the operating costs and that the reductions will be made by outsourcing some of its operations, renegotiating contracts, increasing staff efficiency and eliminating overlapping positions.