ARMO workers continue protests over the suspension of refiner’s activity

TIRANA, July 31 – Three weeks after the suspension of work in the ARMO oil refiner, hundreds of workers who have remained jobless continue protests in the southern city of Fier demanding an end to blockage of work by the tax authorities. In an open letter to the President of the Republic, company officials appeal for reaction to the situation in ARMO over what they call arbitrary suspension of work in the Fier and Ballsh refineries by state structures.
“Our lives are inextricably linked to the plants of Fier and Ballsh since their construction, and we would like to inform you that we are experiencing one of the most difficult situations in our households,” said a chief engineer of the refinery publicly reading the letter to the President in a protest this week.
ARMO officials says the closure of the Fier refinery for two weeks has caused the company USD 1.7 million in damages also affecting the company’s ability to pay off salaries and meet contract obligations with regional oil operators.
Hundreds of employees of the ARMO oil refinery in Fier and Ballsh, southern Albania, have been staging protests this week over the blockage of work by tax authorities, warning that they could enter a hunger strike if no immediate solution is given to the situation. Tax authorities have blocked work over unpaid taxes while company officials describe the attacks as politically motivated.
ARMO’s assets include two refineries in Ballsh and Fier, one thermal power plant. The oil refinery employs some 3,000 people.
Rezart Taci, who in 2008 bought 85 percent of the refinery’s shares for 128 million euros ($183 million), failed to buy Albpetrol oil company after a Euro 850 million winning bid. The tender was cancelled after Vetro Energy consortium-led by Taci failed to pay off a bid guarantee in early 2013.
Tax administration authorities say ARMO has outstanding taxes over staff and oil to pay and that it has also been offered the possibility to pay in instalments but has refused it.
In an earlier petition signed and sent to incumbent Prime Minister Sali Berisha and incoming PM Edi Rama, Armo employees demanded the departure of the tax investigation officers from the company premises and the unfreeze of its bank accounts and the review of taxes which make the functioning of Albania’s only oil refiner impossible.
“Since 4 years this private venture is facing illegal fines and deliberate arbitrariness. During the last four years, this section of the state structures has fined ARMO Company with about 100 million dollars, while only in the last few months fines amounted to $ 60 million,” say company representatives.
“Since five years we are under a constant pressure from certain sections of the state of Albania. In the last five years we have worked only 11 months in the plant of Ballsh,” said Aurel Stavre, the director of the refinery in Ballsh.