Rebellion at Artfil Sighisoara

A spontaneous strike paralyzed the activity of SC Artfil SA in Sighisoara for a few hours, more than a week ago. The management of the unit is still silent on this labor conflict and its causes. Workers sustain they have received only part of their salaries since October 2005, and for January and the first two weeks of February they did not receive the grocery tickets which they are entitled to. Additionally, many employees were sent on unpaid vacation since there is no work to be done, and the management of the company announced massive dismissal of personnel.

The head of the Sighisoara office of the AJOFM Mures (the Workforce Distribution Office of Mures County), Niculina Homoiu declared that up to that moment, SC Artfil had not announced the agency that it would perform dismissals, and the company didn’t do this in autumn either, when some 50 employees were dismissed. As for the payment of salaries, the head of the Sighisoara Territorial Labor Inspectorate, Lucretia Purenciu, showed that, according to the payrolls submitted to the Chamber of Labor, workers of Artfil received their salaries integrally, at least until December 2005. Artfil records some debts in the payment of social security contribution, but, according to the representatives of the company, these are caused by the fact that the company has to recover the VAT for products exported in the past three months. Last week, the general manager, Iosif Blaj, was at a speciality fair in Birmingham (England) in order to conclude contracts, and in Sighisoara Emil Olteanu economic manager was in charge, who avoided contact with the press, motivating this gesture with being extremely busy.

Among the three companies which separated from the former Sticlarie si Faianta Sighisoara (Glassworks and Faience) enterprise, only SC Cesiro SA is the one that has had no problems related to production so far. Last year’s autumn, SC Stimet SA closed the doors, and SC Artfil SA has been struggling for survival for years now .

Although problems occurred already in 2004, the company built a streamlined head office in front of the production halls, which seems not to have been paid integrally up to this date. Until 2004, the offices of the company had functioned in the administrative buildings of SC Cesiro SA. (A.D.)