Miners and energy workers who are members of trade unions affiliated with the National Federation Mine Energie are staging a protest rally on Thursday in front of the Government headquarters in response to the problems they are facing.

According to a press release from the Federation, the reasons for the protest include breaches of individual employment contracts of employees at Oltenia Energy Complex SA, through the failure to grant holiday vouchers and meal vouchers (which are provided to employees working in difficult, hazardous and harmful conditions).

They also accuse the lack of social protection for 2,000 employees on fixed-term individual employment contracts at Oltenia Energy Complex.

Another issue raised by the trade unions concerns the modification of Emergency Ordinance No. 69/2019 on the implementation of social protection measures granted to persons made redundant through collective dismissals as a result of the decarbonisation programme and the closure of mines during 2019-2032, specifically the establishment of a supplementary income payment period of up to 48 months for staff affected by the closure of coal-fired energy capacities.

The protesters are also calling for a return to the retirement conditions in place prior to September 1, 2024; the urgent formalisation of the situation of the Lupeni and Lonea mines, which cannot be technically closed within the deadlines set out in the G.I.G. study carried out at the request of the European Commission; and the elimination of the serious imbalance between baseload energy and intermittent energy, which they say has led to an explosive rise in electricity prices. In their view, the Government should decide to decommission lignite- and hard coal-fired power generation capacities only once the gas-fired units at Turceni, Isalnita and Paroseni and nuclear units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda are completed.

The trade unionists also point out that SSH Hidroserv is competing with private companies that are not subject to the same restrictions, which could result in unfair competition in which private firms are entirely advantaged, potentially leading to the company's bankruptcy under the law. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)