The company’s union says OSSH must urgently conclude collective agreements with employees as provided in Labor Code before it fires any more people.
By Tirana Times Staff
TIRANA, Nov. 19 – The new Czech owners of the Distribution System Operator, better known by its Albanian initials, OSSH, are running into trouble with the company’s union over potential layoffs of about 400 employees.
The fears come as each employee will be tested and evaluated if she or he is worthy of staying with company. The evaluation will be done locally at first, then centrally.
Many OSSH employees don’t have a lot of fans in Albania’s population, and there are a lot of complaints that they misread meters or worse, come up with fictitious numbers.
One of the goals of the new Czech owners is to clear the ranks from those making mistakes.
“DSO has been taking necessary measures and identifying areas where we can improve. In this context, efforts are being made to identify employees who are violating the company’s internal rules and whose behaviors that go against its interests and thoseof the clients,” the company said in a press release.
The company’s union, however, says the dismissals taking place so far have been arbitrary and the decisions have lacked transparency.
The union says OSSH should urgently conclude collective agreements with employees as provided in Labor Code before it fires any more people, according to an open letter the union sent to several government officials.
In March, the government of Albania and CEZ Group signed a contract for the sale of 76 percent of the shares of the Electricity Distribution Company of Albania (OSSH).
CEZ was selected as the winning bidder by the tendering commission already in October 2008. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, advised the Albanian government on structuring the transaction and executing an open, transparent and competitive bidding process. The value of the contract for the majority stake in OSSH is 102 million euros.
