Romanian Post "will be restructured"

Restructuring of the Romanian Post returns in actuality after the announcement of the Communications Minister on a concrete plan of reorganizing activity and reducing the establishment plan.

"No layoffs the institution would go bankrupt if the plan which provides for dismissal of a hundred executives in the country and the disposal of the other one thousand employees will be approved Friday by the Administration Board , it may go directly to layoffs since unions announces that they have no objection to this process", according to Communications Minister Dan Nica .

Post Reorganization is one of the Government's commitments under the precautionary agreement concluded with the IMF.

Commitment provides for the reduction of the number of post offices, reducing the number of employees and attract a strategic investor for the capitalization of the company.

Federation of Post trade unions support the company reorganization and the staff disposal , but considers that the number of people laid off would be too high.

"So we are not against the staff resizing , in order to reduce the number of posts, of those created artificially, of those where the activity is running is doubled, of those leading, unnecessary that had been set up by decision of the Government at a time. In 2009 when it came the political power of the moment, considered that the Romanian Post is a decentralized institution of the State and by order of the Government that are appointed political leaders in all areas.

"Here simply came and got into a technical structure, one in each county, that probably has brought with him another one. You can discuss a number of posts which have not been until 2009 and which may be dispensed with, "says the General Secretary of the Federation of Postal Unions , Ionel Oţelea.

Romanian Post has over thirty thousand employees

According to Minister of Communications, Dan Nica, about 1,000 of them will be fired after the Administrative Board will approve the restructuring plan.

Disposal process would take about two months, as the Secretary-General of the Federation of Postal Unions , Ionel Oţelea.

"At the time of approving the organizational structure and shows a redundancy in a particular area of activity, according to the agreement it shall announce the trade union regarding the number of people at risk of dismissal and shall apply the provisions of the employment contract . Probably about in two months l, because there is not a prior notice of 20 working days, which means 30 calendar days, an exchange of correspondence,/.../at ITM of some situations, so at least two months, "said Ionel Oţelea.

This year, the Romanian Post is expected to disband over a hundred post offices, after last year were dismantled one thousand two hundred offices.

The other day, in an interview for the news portal HotNews, the new general manager of Romanian Post , Ion Smeianu, said that the company's total debt is two hundred and ten million lei, the equivalent of about fifty million Euros.

The general manager also noted that Romanian Post has an urgent need for restructuring, in order to prevent the entry into insolvency.

The restructuring plan provides for, in addition to dismissing staff and expanding the insurance sale in the post offices and the provision of banking services.

Translated by
Denisse-Meda Bucura
MTTLC, Bucharest University