THE MINISTRY OF THE ECONOMY HAS SIGNED THE PROTOCOL WITH THE NATIONAL MINING AND ENERGY CONFEDERATION The deadline for the creation of the Electra company, to be announced within a week

The Minister of the Economy, Ion Ariton, together with the chairman of the National Mining And Energy Confederation (FNME) Marin Condescu, the head of the Craiova Energy Complex, Constantin Bălăşoiu, and the head of the Oltenia National Lignite Company (SNLO), Daniel Burlan, have signed yesterday in Târgu-Jiu, the protocol which approves the Social Plan proposed by the FNME to avoid layoffs in Oltenia"s mining and energy sectors.

Minister Ariton announced that the parties that signed the protocol have agreed to give within seven days an approximate deadline for the creation of the "Electra" company. He said that the government still supportes the plan of restructuring Romania"s energy production by creating two major state owned companies.

Constantin Bălăşoiu, who is also the coordinator of the creation of Electra, said for BURSA: "The deadline for the creation of Electra, which will include the energy complexes of Craiova, Rovinari and Turceni, as well as the SNLO, Nuclearelectrica and a part of Hidroelectrica, will be set depending on the ongoing lawsuits and the talks with the unions and with the Proprietatea Fund. We will urgently resume these talks with the unionists and the Proprietatea Fund, which oppose the creation of Electra, which will allow us to reach a common ground".

Concerning layoffs, Mr. Bălăşoiu said that the protocol solved the issue of the 22% cut of the wage costs: "We will perform as many services as possible in house, in order to keep our employees busy. Until now we used to outsource services such as security and maintenance to third parties. Nevertheless, some layoffs will be needed, but they will not be as big as rumored. The decision of personnel restructuring will only be made after the implementation of the measures to internalize several services and activities".

According to Agerpres, the protocol signed yesterday includes ten points, including the payment, in the 2011-2012 period, of 75% of the wages and of an additional 25% of the seniority bonus to individuals which have two more years until they reach the retirement age, as well as cutting labor costs by 23% in each mining unit by implementing this measure.

The chairman of the FNME, Marin Condescu, said, during the same press conference, that solutions were found for the thermal plant of Severin, which had been proposed to be shutdown in 2013, as well as for the alleged preferential treatment that the ANRE gives the energy producers of the Oltenia region, as claimed by the leader of the FNME.

Marin Condescu said: "The protocol which was signed completely solves, the issues of the Social Plan proposed to the administration shortly after they announced their proposed layoffs, which, from their point of view, would have led to a 22% reduction of human labor costs. During these talks, we also came up with solutions to issues that seemed not to have any up until yesterday ". He added that an alternative to the jobs will be accomplished by having the Ministry of the Economy to empower the mining and energy companies to create companies in association with the Local Councils and with investors that manufacture spare parts and subassemblies.