Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku says he spoke on Monday night with both PSD Digitalization Minister Bohdan Ivan and Post Director General Valentin Štefan (PNL), who he told them to resolve the issue as soon as possible. maybe. “If, God forbid, the pensions don’t arrive as intended because of the strike at the Romanian post office, I think the director will leave,” Ciolacu said on Tuesday.

The statements, backed by Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku, president of the PSD, were made on Tuesday after a meeting of the CPN at the party’s headquarters.

General strike at the Romanian post office. What are the demands of the employees and the latest proposal of the management

Postal workers went on a general strike Monday in Bucharest and several counties, with their unions saying 18,000 of the more than 21,000 workers will be on the economy’s minimum wage and demanding a net increase of 400 lei in wages and bonuses. loyalty.

The postal workers’ union, which initiated the general strike, accuses the company of putting pressure on employees by sending workers from Bucharest to a logistics center in Cluj to replace those who quit.

On Monday evening, as a result of the negotiations at the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the management of the Post Office offered the postal workers with the minimum wage to raise their salaries in two installments: July 1 and September 1.

• “According to the proposal, cumulatively, after two payments, the Romanian postal worker will receive a net salary increase of 369 lei on average. Tomorrow morning, around 10:00 a.m., after consultation with all members of the SLPR, a decision on whether to continue or end the strike will be announced. Until then, the general strike continues!”, BNS reported.

According to NBS, on Monday more than 7,000 postal workers from 32 districts of the country announced a general strike.

• read: VIDEO General strike at the Romanian post office. Trade unions accuse the company of putting pressure on protesters / What are the demands of Post Office workers

Claims of employees of the Romanian post office

Romania’s postal workers’ union, part of the National Bank of Romania, said on Monday that “18,000 of the more than 21,000 Romanian postal workers, regardless of their position and seniority, will receive the minimum wage in the economy from July!”.

The trade union notes that 115 days have passed since the management of the National Postal Company of Romania adopted the first decision regarding the 2024 Collective Labor Agreement.

“From then until now, 110 days have passed in vain, and the company’s management has no intention of responsibly discussing this document, which regulates labor relations between the employer and employees and maintains social peace at the enterprise. Only in the last 4-5 days, after the registration of the labor conflict, after the warning strike and the notification of the general strike, at the clear request of the majority shareholder – the state of Romania through the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization, the management of the company began to provide the representative of the trade union – the Romanian Trade Union of Postal Workers with data and information on the basis of which calculations can be made regarding the salaries of more than 20,000 employees of the Romanian post office,” the Romanian postal workers’ union Soyuz claims.

According to the union, the wage demands of workers represented at the negotiations by the Romanian Union of Postal Workers, the legally representative union at the level of the Romanian post office, are as follows:

• an increase of 400 lei after deducting the wages of employees;
• increasing the loyalty bonus, which is granted in parts, to employees who have worked for the Romanian Post for more than a certain number of years.

“The management of the Company responded to these demands by forming a house union led by the former CEO of the company and a former advisor to the current CEO, with whom he signed an agreement in which he promised the postmen a salary increase that they will receive in In fact, the law imposes on them July 2024 year. Postmen refused to be manipulated and intend to strike. We ask the beneficiaries of the services provided by the Romanian Post, mainly pensioners and poor social categories like postmen, to be with us and ask the company management and the competent authorities to resolve our requests as soon as possible,” the union also states.

What the company says

The state company “Romanian Post” called the labor conflict artificial and assured two million pensioners that the postmen’s actions will not affect them.

“Pošta Română National Company will ensure accurate distribution, in accordance with all contractual and legal provisions, of shipments and social rights for all customers, and their delay is excluded. We assure all customers, partners and banking institutions of the stability and functionality of the services, as well as the reliability of the current management policy,” the Romanian Post sent a press release on Sunday.

The company emphasizes that “the escalation of the labor conflict is artificial, and the National Company “Pošta Română” has taken all measures to overcome it:

“We assure more than 2 million pensioners who receive their social rights through the National Company “Pošta Română” that there will not be a single person who will not receive their rights on time, in April! All social rights will be delivered on time, by APRIL 15, as we have committed ourselves!” – reports Pošta Română.

The company also notes that more than 80% of employees fulfill their duties, noting that approximately 20% of Post employees have joined the collective labor dispute in writing.

“I want to assure, first of all, all the more than 2 million pensioners who receive their social rights through the National Company “Pošta Română” that there will not be a single person who will not receive their rights on time, in April. All pensions will be paid on time, by April 15, as we have promised so far. The information about the impact on the population is false and transmitted in bad faith!” said Valentyn Stefan, General Director of the Romanian Post.

The company also states that “they have taken all necessary measures at the management level and will continue to make maximum efforts to overcome this collective labor conflict.”

How low are salaries at the Romanian Post Office? One is supported by trade unions, the other by company management

The President of the National Bloc of Trade Unions (BNS), Dumitru Kostin, in February this year asked the PNL leadership and the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) to investigate the mismanagement of the PNL leadership at the Posta company, in which almost 60% of workers would receive the minimum wage.

• “According to our estimates, we are talking about almost 60% of all workers who receive the minimum wage, regardless of the work they do, professional training and responsibilities they have in the company.
• The trend is to increase the number of minimum wage or extremely low wage workers in the company. There is a risk that with the increase of the minimum wage on July 1, we will count not 60%, but 80% of postal workers with the minimum wage,” said the head of the post, Dumitru Kostin, in February. National Bank of Romania.

In response, the management of the Post Office said that the workers are not being paid the minimum wage, and claims that it pays about 2 million lei annually in salaries to union leaders who have been “taken out of production”.

“Currently, there are no employees in the Romanian Post Office who receive an income at the level of the minimum wage in the economy. In 2021, Romanian Post had an average gross income of 3,350 lei, and in January 2024, the average gross income was approx. 5,000 lei gross,” the company reported.

• Read more: The head of the National Bank of Romania asks DNA to investigate the management of PNL at the post office: Almost 60% of employees receive the minimum wage / The company’s reaction