Romanian Carmaker Dacia Employees Back To Work After 1 Mo Production Halt

According to union vice-president Ion Iordache, employees put on technical unemployment during the production halt received 85% of their wages plus meal vouchers. They also received Christmas bonuses of 450 lei (EUR1=RON4.2127) each.

He added about 10,000 of the carmaker’s total 12,000 employees were on technical unemployment between Dec 11 and Jan 12.

"The current crisis is caused by the increasing number of used cars that were sold in Romania in the second part of last year. That is why we’re organizing a rally Tuesday to back the pollution tax on cars and the protection of jobs in the auto industry. We urge union members, people in Pitesti, Mioveni and nearby towns to attend the rally. We’ve also invited government members, the head of the Arges county council, local democrat liberal and social democrat lawmakers, mayors to a meeting at Automobile Dacia at GMT 1200,” Iordache said.

He added over 5,000 people are expected to attend the rally.

Dacia halted production in December citing sharply declining demand on most its markets and put employees on technical unemployment.

Dacia’s worldwide sales in increased 11.7% on the year in 2008 to a record 257,594 units, but were down 15.3% on the year in December, to 18,754 units. On the European market, Dacia sales increased 39% last year, to over 112,000 units.

On the Romanian market, however, Dacia sales went down by a record 16.7% on the year, to 84,707 cars, and sales fell a sharp 55% on the year in December, to little over 3,600 cars.

The carmaker’s exports increased 34.6% on the year in 2008, to 172,886 vehicles, therefore two thirds of Dacia’s sales were outside Romania.

Company commercial manager, Jacques Daniel, told a news conference last week that Dacia has stocks of 10,000 vehicles, which is normal stocks for this time of crisis, and plans to keep sale prices unchanged.