Romanian TAROM Employees Likely to Go on Strike from August 23

Flying to or from Romania these days? You have to consider a potential delay in your flight! TAROM, the Romanian Air Company, may become the next European one whose employees have gone on strike to demand higher salaries. The chances for this to happen are high, as there is still no sign from the leadership of fulfilling the workers’ demands.

The Union announced they would go on strike starting from August 23rd. The strike would consist of three hours when the Union workers won’t operate any flight, between 4 am and 7 am.

Starting on 23rd August 2022, as a sign of protest by the pilot members of the Union (SUT), no TAROM aircraft will take off between 4 and 7. We will begin the protest timeline by notifying our employer of the intention to strike two days a week for no more than two hours, followed by a full general strike in compliance with all legal norms, on a date established by the Union as notified in the communication provided. (…) Negotiations that took place in the past happened with difficulty, and no agreement was reached with regards to the salary demands put forward by the Union.

TAROM Union representative cited by Simple Flying

The two-figure inflation in Romania made all the salaries lose some of their buying power. On top of that, according to the union, there has been no recent adjustment of the wages at TAROM, making it one of the state-owned companies whose workers haven’t seen their income grow.

On the other hand, TAROM is a loss-making company and constantly loses market share to the foreign air companies operating in Romania. This makes the demand inadequate in such economic conditions. Yet, considering that the Romanian Government announced the growth of most of the public employees’ salaries, TAROM could offer an increase to the pilots, at least to cover the inflation’s effects.

In 2019, during the pandemic, the company initiated restructuring procedures but hasn’t yet recovered. TAROM is also one of the state-owned companies to have received Governmental help.