Chisinau Trolleybus Company workers say they are forced to take unpaid leave

The employees of the Chisinau Electric Transport Company complain they are sent on forced leave without being paid indemnities. The company’s administration denies this. “They told us clearly that they do not have money to pay us and insistently recommend that we take unpaid leave,” trolleybus driver Constantin has told Info-Prim Neo. Veaceslav, mechanic at one of the trolleybus units of the Chisinau Electric Transport Company, said that the salary earners were informed about the financial crisis experienced by the company and possible forced leave even before the elections. “They told us to take unpaid leave even at the start of April. Otherwise, we will not get salaries. The administrators say there is no workload, not enough vehicles and parts and no money. They even drew up a timetable when we should go on leave. Many of us planned the leave already,” Veaceslav said. A number of employees of the company confirmed that their salaries for February-March have been decreased by several hundreds lei. “They paid me by 700 lei less for the previous month. The salary fell from 4,500 lei last year to 3,500 lei at present. Nobody explains why the salaries are lower,” said trolleybus driver Constantin. The mechanics complain that their salary is now 2,600 lei, as against 3,300 lei earlier. They said they were informed that some of them would be made redundant from June 1. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the company’s director Gheorghe Morgoci denied the information, but admitted that the company is now in crisis. “The administration of the Electric Transport Company, as employer, on April 30 announced that the employees that need to go to the country to carry out agricultural works can ask for unpaid leave, but they are not forced. If they do not want to go on leave, they can continue working. Yet, if they take unpaid leave it is good because the employees solve their problems, while the employer makes savings,” Morgoci said. He also said that the salaries had not been decreased. “The salaries remained unchanged. Moreover, from 2008 the workers are also paid for the length of service. They are paid according to the number of hours worked, the amount of money collected from passengers and how they observe the work discipline. “Though we feel the crisis, we do not know yet if the salaries or the number of workers will be cut. The Government ordered that we optimize the costs, but we do not know how.” According to Gheorghe Morgoci, the average salary of an employee is 3,000 lei. Since the start of the year, the company’s incomes have decreased following the 8-10% fall in the number of passengers. About 400,000 passengers travel by trolleybuses every day.