Highway Constructor Bechtel To Recall 300 Workers This Week

“660 employees have been called back to work in the first week since activity on section 2B (Campia Turzii-Gilau) of the Transylvania Highway has become more demanding. Another 300 employees will join them this week, meaning 1,400 people will be working on section 2B,” the company said in a press release Tuesday.

The measure is part of the protocol signed in February by Bechtel, the Romanian Transports Ministry and consulting firm Egisroute, committing to the completion of the Turda-Gilau segment and the viaduct Suplacu de Barcau on segment 3C by the end of the year.

“In order to achieve the objectives of the protocol, Romanian authorities have committed to provide the constructor with access to land, by solving issues related to the relocation of 38 utilities. The company is actively helping with the relocation of nine utilities, so as to assist the National Company for Highways and National Roads and minimize the impact of existing delays,” the statement said.

In March, Bechtel spokesman Bogdan Sgargitu stated that, in April, the company will recall a part of the 1,500 employees sent into technical unemployment in December 2008.

At the end of March, union leader Mihai Lup announced that Bechtel employees will resume work as of March 30 and that he has received promises from the company that by the end of the month, every employee sent into technical unemployment would return.

“As of Monday (March 30), we are resuming work on the Transylvania Highway, which is good news. The people will return in stages, because it is necessary to run them through labor protection, as they have been away for more than 30 days,” Lupu had said.

According to the Bechtel statement, by the end of the week, work will be complete on the Racos canal located between kilometer 40 and 42 on section 2B, and on the viaduct at kilometer 39, which will provide the continuous traffic of heavy duty transports on the highway line between kilometer 20 and 50.

The technical unemployment measure is applied for over two thousand employees of Bechtel since December and January, workers on the Transylvania Highway, who receive 75% pay.

Romanian transport minister Radu Berceanu said late February that the ministry will pay EUR420 million to Bechtel this year, based on a protocol concluded between the two contracting parties.

The construction of Transylvania Highway, linking the central Romanian city of Brasov to Bors, on the western border with Hungary, started in 2004 based on a EUR2.2 billion contract attributed to Bechtel. Works were halted mid-2005, when authorities started looking into contracts concluded under the previous government. The deadline for the completion of works was extended until 2013 from the initial 2012.