Valentin Ştefan, Romanian Post company: "All pensions and social obligations will be distributed as they should be, until April 15"

All pensions and all social obligations will be distributed as they should, until April 15, regardless of what the union will decide, said yesterday Valentin Ştefan, the general director of Poşta Română, during a press conference.

Last week, some of the Post Office employees went on warning strike, due to low wages. But, according to the president of the National Trade Union Bloc, Dumitru Costin, the process of negotiating the new collective labor contract was compromised, and people are preparing for the start of the general strike at the end of this month, at the latest at the beginning of April, according to Agerpres.

Valentin Ştefan said: "Less than 10% of the employees of the Post Office were on a warning strike. Do you think that a strike can be formed and triggered by less than 10% of the employees of a company? Not even all the union members, all the SLPR members went on strike. That is why I am sending you this message of confidence. I am convinced that, until April 15, all pensions, all social obligations will be distributed properly".

Related to the grievances of the unionized employees, the director of the Post emphasized that, on the one hand, there is not the money necessary to satisfy the demands of the unionists and that, on the other hand, there are legislative restrictions in this regard. "The collective labor contract expired on February 1 and, according to the law, we started the negotiation procedures in December. There were several meetings, but the discussions were quite sterile, because we did not manage to get past the first demand through which the union requested 250 million lei in addition to the salary fund. We told them that we do not have this money - the company is self-financing. And on the other hand, the state budget law does not allow us", said Valentin Ştefan.

According to him, the salary budget of the Post Office was already increased to the maximum level in January. "We increased the budget by about 105 million lei, of which 56 million were already put into salary increases at the beginning of the year. The rest we keep to see what happens in the summer; if the minimum wage increases, by how much it increases, how many employees will this impact. Depending on the answers to these questions, the money will go to the employees. That's why I proposed to the union to maximize this budgetary freedom and offer an average increase of 250 lei to those in the company, at their discretion", said Valentin Ştefan.

The Director of the Post also stated that the union leaders pressured some employees to go on a warning strike, and those persons filed complaints about the pressures of the unionists. "The increases (n.r. salaries) that have taken place in recent years, of tens or even hundreds of millions of lei, are historic increases in the Romanian Post Office. We send all the money the company has either to investments to improve working conditions or to salary increases. I have no reason not to accept a salary increase in Romanian Post as requested by the union, if there is that money", said Valentin Ştefan.