Subway Union Threatens Strike As CBA Negotiations Continue

Metrorex, the public subway company, has more than 4,500 employees, with the current CBA set to expire on Saturday.

The union is requesting a 42% raise in wages and the improvement of working conditions, with their demands currently way off what the company offered – an 8% wage increase.

Negotiations held on Friday were inconclusive, with a new round of talks between the company and union leaders set for Monday.

Union leader Ion Radoi told MEDIAFAX that the percentage is justified by the wage and pensions growth rate announced by authorities for 2019, of 37%, plus a 5% inflation rate, according to data published by the National Statistics Institute.

Metrorex representatives told MEDIAFAX that the union’s demands cannot be legally met, as legal provisions state that public companies cannot raise the gross median wage pf their employees with more than 60% of the total increase in work productivity.

Company representatives added that its workers’ wages were raised by 10% in 2015 and 2016 and 12% in November 2017, with their base salaries adjusted with another 21% this year to cover the effects of moving a number of tax contributions from the employer to the employee.

As for the work conditions requirement, they added that the company’s investment strategy was recently approved and will modernize all stations on 4 of the 5 existing subway lines in Bucharest, together with transport infrastructure, which will also result in an improvement of labor conditions.

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