Maritime Danube Port Authority Could Cut Jobs

Marina Dinu, GalaŢi

The financial crisis is affecting business in Danube ports and has prompted the Maritime Danube Port Authority (APDM) in Galati to consider cutting jobs or introducing temporary unemployment by rotation in all subordinated organizational units - the ports in Galati, Braila and Tulcea - in order to cope with an already insufficient budget.

Mihai Ochialbescu, the Director of APDM - Galati, stated: "We have come to a point where we are also considering cutting jobs. Maybe not too many, because we are currently running several programmes and the people we have are planned to be involved in them. However, it is possible that some of us in APDM may leave. I hope as few as possible. We have also considered unpaid vacations in order to bring some balance to the payroll. I wouldn"t want to cut any jobs, but, if the situation demands it, we will have to do it. I"m interested in keeping the professionals and APDM is 90% made of very qualified people."

He added that the decision to cut jobs would be made partially based on the losses of each port. "Because bauxite and ore traffic to the Tulcea Works is practically zero, I can say that Tulcea Port is incurring the greatest losses. In the meantime, traffic through Braila Port and Galati Port is at par," Ochialbescu said. He stressed that the budget for 2009 was only 16 million RON, including 6 million RON for hoisting the sunken ship Transilvania and preparing the tender for hoisting the sunken ship Slatina (scheduled for completion by the end of the year).

"The revenue that we have is not enough to ensure the maintenance of the navigable canal into the port or the entrance to port perimeters or the signalling that we need to put in place. Under these circumstances, it is possible that we lose some of our competitiveness as ports on the Danube," Ochialbescu added. The APDM has requested a 5% increase in the budget, but will not receive it because of very low traffic to all the ports under their management.

The Maritime Danube Port Administration has approximately 134 employees and manages the ports in Galati (the Ore Port, the Galati Commercial Port, the Docks and the New Port), Braila (Braila Port, Harsova Port, Smardan Port, Macin Port and the loading stations in Gura Arman and Turcoaia) and in Tulcea (Tulcea Port, Chilia Veche Port, Mahmudia Port, Isaccea Port and Marina Port).