Romania To Fire Over 4,300 Miners By 2018, In Sector Overhaul

04.14.2011 By Andrei Circhelan

Romanian national hard coal company CNH will dismiss 3,300 employees by 2018, while the national lignite company SNLO plans to dismiss 1,000 in the next few years, under Romania’s mining sector restructuring scheme, an Economy Ministry official said Thursday.

Romanian national hard coal company CNH will dismiss 3,300 employees by 2018, while the national lignite company SNLO plans to dismiss 1,000 in the next few years, under Romania's mining sector restructuring scheme, an Economy Ministry official said Thursday.

"A series of unviable mines will be shut down, and more than 1,000 people will be laid off at SNLO," said Tudor Serban, adviser to the economy minister.

He added CNH will have 5,500 employees by 2018.

At the end of 2010, CNH had some 8,800 employees, while SNLO had 9,000 employees.

The International Monetary Fund wants Romania to separate viable mines from the non-productive ones, and to minimize the financial losses of the latter ones, according to early-February statements by Jeffrey Franks, the head of the IMF delegation to Romania.