Employee revolt at DAMEN Mangalia. Massive protests: We want a wage increase correlated with the inflation rate!

There were three consecutive days of spontaneous protests within the Mangalia Shipyard, DAMEN. Everything happened in the midst of the negotiation process of the new collective labor agreement.

The employees announce that they will come to the protests every day, and they are already coming in significant numbers, in front of the pavilion (where the offices of the Construction Site management are) to demand explanations from the employer: why they cannot grant a salary increase correlated with the inflation rate.

I learned more details from Laurentiu Gobeajă, the president of the Free Navalistul Trade Union.

“In December we had a protest at the Ministry of Economy. From the Official Gazette, we learned that the restructuring of the workforce and the restructuring of positions are planned. They made this restructuring decision before in 2020, including 2021. Initially, they wanted to lay off 228 employees, but until the implementation of this decision, only 65 remained on the list because the others left, quit the activity,” said Laurentiu Gobeajă, president of the Free Navalist Union.

“Although the number of employees has been reduced to half of what they originally proposed, when they took over Damen’s shares, there are about 1005 employees left, and they have publicly stated that they will increase the number to 3000, but they still want to lay off. “, said Laurentiu Gobeaja.

“Furthermore, we are in negotiations and they have offered a gross salary increase of only 100 lei to the basic salary and a bonus of 225 lei for 4 months. I told them that this amount does not cover the rate of inflation. And, while we were negotiating, we found out that they preferentially granted, without transparency, without informing us, a performance bonus to a number of employees, about 2 per team, without telling us what the criteria were of selection. The amount is 2,340 lei net, that is, somewhere around 4,000 lei gross.”, said Laurentiu Gobeaja.

“Due to the unilateral, preferential dismissal decisions and the fact that we have not completed the negotiations, the employees, on their own initiative, since the beginning of the year, since January 4, 2023, have come out in front of the pavilions every day during the lunch break and they protested, chanting that they want explanations, answers, why they gave preferential bonuses and lied about not having the money to raise wages. Instead, they grant preferential bonuses,” said Gobeaja.

“Employees will continue the protests, day by day, until they receive the requested answers and sit down at the negotiation table. They have repeatedly refused negotiations. He always puts them off. For example, yesterday we were supposed to have negotiations. I summoned the peer committee and they were required to appear, but they did not. They reasoned that, for objective reasons, a member of the commission from the administration cannot participate. They adjourned until January 13, next Friday. We insisted that he respect the contract. It’s the “n” time they don’t show up, even though they have this obligation. I also sued them in court, for this reason, that they make unilateral decisions and do not respect the collective labor agreement,” Laurentiu Gobeajă, president of the Free Navalist Union, told DC News.

Next week, in Brussels, the management of the Dutch company DAMEN (which manages the Mangalia construction site) will meet with the management of the trade unions within the construction site in Brussels.

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