Divisions of the Romanian Railways (CFR) at risk of running out of money for salaries

Alina Toma Vereha

While attending a seminar organized by the Economic Mission of the French Embassy in Romania yesterday, Radu Berceanu, the Minister of Transports yesterday said that divisions of the Romanian Railways are at risk of being unable to pay their workers in the second half of 2009. He said that the crisis cut earnings by half compared to last year, whereas expenses stayed the same.

Minister Berceanu claims that he restructured the divisions of CFR and tried to cut expenses in order to prevent this from happening, but workers are demanding that their salaries remain unchanged, even asking for a 50% raise. He added: "I can sympathize with the employees of the CFR who staged a protest recently, but they should also try to come up with solutions for paying the salaries. I urge them to look around and notice we"re in the middle of a crisis. We will work with the unions in finding a solution".

Some of the employees of the CFR SA regional division staged a spontaneous protest on Wednesday and refused to work, due to their wages not being paid. According to State Sub-Secretary Constantin Axinia, quoted by Agerpres, the delay was caused by the lack of liquidity in the system, with employees of the Braşov Regional Division of CFR SA to receive the remainder of their overdue salaries for the month of May starting Monday. Also, trains of the Mişcare Comercial (Freight transportation) Târgu Mureş division, were stopped in the Ciceu, Miercurea Ciuc and Gheorghieni areas, which serve as major railway nodes leading to the Moldova and Braşov areas.

Almost 40% of the employees of CFR Marfă (Freight Division) will enter structural unemployment. This measure will be temporary, and employees will come to work in turns, for three months. For the entire duration of structural unemployment, CFR employees will have their work contracts suspended and will receive 75% of their base salary. Unionists and regional directors of CFR Marfă met yesterday to discuss the implementation of the structural unemployment agreement. CFR Marfă currently has 17,500 employees.