Scandal at Transelectrica: union representation or personal interest?

Transelectrica employees are currently waiting for the initialing of the new collective labor agreement (CCM) at the company level for the next two years, with the hope that they will round off their salary income, given the consistent annual profit of the company with majority state capital, a listed company at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, according to sources within the company. However, the employee representatives are miming the CCM negotiation, some of them pursuing personal interests, and others being in a moral incompatibility as long as they were part of the company's management in the past, and now they have close relations with the new management team of Transelectrica, a team however which is not recorded by the National Trade Registry Office.

At the center of these controversies is Ionuţ Bogdan Grecia, the current union president of the Energy for the Future organization, recently affiliated to the UNIVERS National Federation of Electricity Trade Unions (FNSE UNIVERS). He occupies a key position representing employees, but at the same time, he also holds leadership positions within the company and in the political arena. Ionuţ Bogdan Grecia is chief inspector at the Internal Public Audit Department within CNTEE Transelectrica SA, where he has access to critical and sensitive information about the company. From this position, Greece is also part of the negotiating committee of the Collective Labor Agreement for the period 2025-2026, in which it should support the interests of employees. But because of his leadership positions within the company, this role raises suspicions about his impartiality in representing employees.

Furthermore, Grecia is the first vice-president of the PNL Sector 4 Political Bureau and is actively involved in the electoral campaign of the candidate for the Presidency of Romania, Nicolae Ciucă. This political involvement goes against the provisions of the FNSE UNIVERS statute, which require members to avoid involvement that can influence objectivity and impartiality in union representation.

We remind you that, in a recent preliminary report of the Court of Accounts of Romania, published in Ziarul Bursa, non-conformities were identified related to the appointment of Grecia as chief inspector at Transelectrica SA. The report indicates that he would not have met the requirements set for the position since his appointment in 2021.

In the preliminary report of the Court of Accounts, it is stated about the position occupied by Ionuţ Grecia: "in the case of taking the position of chief inspector of internal public audit, the requirements regarding certifications/authorizations as well as those regarding professional experience were not respected".

Read The competition for the leadership of Transelectrica is conducted according to the law, but the candidates are politically screened

• Ionuţ Grecia denies any form of incompatibility

His presence in a position of such importance, despite possible gaps in meeting the requirements, raises questions about the selection process and transparency at the management level.

Regarding the above situations, Ionuţ Grecia told Ziarul BURSA: "I have been in the company for many years and I care a lot about it, especially since I was also in the management team. My main goal is that, if I didn't manage to solve certain inequities while I was on the company's board - because I didn't have a very long term as a mandate -, at least I try to solve these problems on the union side. I reiterate that I am part of the company before I was part of the board or held a trade union position. In the discussions I had with my colleagues when I was part of the board, they were related to the fact that I best understand the fiber of the company, the needs of the employees and, above all, I am emotionally connected to this company. I mean, the point, if you're on the board, isn't to just be a bad boy making a profit. The goal when you are on the board is to find a balance, so that it maximizes your profit, but also the employee is paid as well as possible according to the respective work and has satisfaction at work. This is my management vision. Considering the limited time, I made the decision to represent the employees at the request of some colleagues who wanted to support me for this story, that I didn't necessarily want to be a union leader, because I have enough work to do".

Regarding the information contained in the preliminary report of the Court of Accounts, Mr. Grecia told us that he had not read that document and could not tell us whether the former vice-president of the Court of Accounts, Vasile Cosmin Nicula, who endorsed the report respectively, and who is now part of the new management team of Transelectrica, is in the commission that negotiates the conclusion of the new collective labor agreement.

We also show that, in addition to Ionuţ Grecia, union leaders Nicolae Buzea and Ionuţ Claudiu Anghel also occupy management positions within energy companies, their substantial incomes coming from multiple roles, which generate suspicions of conflict of interest it also affects their impartiality in supporting the rights of employees.

Conflicts of interest are defined as situations where a person has personal interests that may affect objectivity in the performance of professional duties. In the case of Greece, the combination of the positions of trade union representative, audit inspector and political leader inevitably affects the impartiality and integrity of the process of negotiating employee rights. However, at the level of CNTEE Transelectrica SA management, no clear measures have been initiated so far to clarify or resolve this conflict of interests.

• CCM will be initialed next week

What is certain is that after the negotiation meeting on October 7, which,

according to our sources, was more of a lunch offered by the management of Transelectrica to the trade unionists through a catering company, the initialing of the collective labor agreement and the agreement on the new regulation for granting increments would follow to take place on November 20 at a fair that will take place in Covasna, together with the management of Transelectrica, which will be present there for the inauguration of the increase in the capacity of the former 200 kilovolt power line on the Fântânele-Gheorghieni-Stejaru section. According to some sources within the union team that negotiates the collective labor agreement, we note that following the discussions a salary increase of 400 lei every five years (ie less than 100 lei per year) and the granting of a 90% increase was accepted for employees who work on weekends. Employees who have young children will receive an extra 300 lei for kindergarten or daycare, in addition to the vouchers established by the value vouchers law, the granting regulation to be approved at the meeting in Covasna, where it would also be determined whether the money remaining in the company's reserve fund, i.e. somewhere around 6-7 million lei, will be distributed or not to Transelectrica employees.