Metro crisis. Union leader: „From September 16th, no one guarantees that it will work” Metrorex still has 3,000 lei in its accounts

The warnings were launched on Wednesday, during the conference organized by the Free Metro Union Unit at Unirii Square 1, under the title „Chronicle of an Announced Death”.

Unionists say they warned since the beginning of the year that the funding made available to Metrorex would not be sufficient for the entire year and that the problems would become acute at the end of August or the beginning of September.

„Since the beginning of the year, in all the appearances that the USLM has had, we have drawn attention to the fact that somewhere at the end of August, beginning of September, the operating money will run out,” the union leadership said.

Union: „There are still 3,000 lei in Metrorex’s accounts”

The most serious problem, according to USLM, is the payment of salaries. Union leaders claim that Metrorex must pay employees’ rights in the coming days, but the company no longer has the necessary liquidity.

„We have to pay salaries tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and we don’t have any money to make this payment. (…) There are still 3,000 lei in Metrorex’s accounts, which is not enough to make this payment,” said the USLM representatives.

The union warns that the critical date is September 12, when salary entitlements should be paid.

According to the unionists, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Transport have been repeatedly informed about the risk that Metrorex will run out of money.

USLM claims that a delay in salaries could trigger individual employee reactions, at a time when the company is already facing a significant staff shortage and thousands of unused vacation days.

„Be careful, on the 16th, no one guarantees that the metro will work, because everyone will look in their pockets. School has started, people are young, they have children, they have bank installments and no one at the bank will wait for them for three, four, five days,” declared the USLM president.

Artimon says that at this point it is not about officially announcing a strike, but about the fact that each employee could decide what to do if Metrorex does not respect its contractual obligations.

„If you don’t give the money, you are responsible for what will happen next. Each person will decide what they will do, because they have to take a vacation. For what? Are we slaves, do we work here on the plantation? No. We are working people, we have collective contracts, we have individual contracts that must be respected. We have public transport service contracts that must be respected,” said Artimon.

300 mechanics could request leave from September 16

USLM claims that in the case of train drivers alone there are approximately 11,000 days of unused vacation leave.

„It is very likely and possible that on the 16th, out of the 400-500 mechanics, about 300 who are affected will come to automatically submit their leave request. It is very clear that without personnel you cannot ensure circulation,” the unionists warned.

The issue of unused vacations is not being raised for the first time. In June, USLM publicly claimed that there were over 10,000 days of vacation not granted to mechanics and a deficit of over 150 mechanics and assistant mechanics.

The union claims that in August alone, employees in the traffic and movement area worked over 10,000 overtime hours.

How it got here: the Metrorex budget was not approved within the legal deadline

The State Budget Law for 2026, Law No. 43/2026, was published in the Official Gazette on March 27.

Government Ordinance No. 26/2013 establishes that the budgets of state-owned companies must be approved within 150 days of the entry into force of the state budget law. If the deadline is not met, the allocation of funds from the state budget is suspended until the company’s budget is approved.

This is exactly the provision that has now hit Metrorex.

The company requested the opening of budget credits worth 63.458 million lei, representing the subsidy for September, but the documentation was returned by the Ministry of Transport because Metrorex did not have the budget for 2026 approved within the deadline provided by law.

„Surprise, but I don’t know why surprise, because there was no other answer: it was conveyed that we cannot grant you the subsidy for September because you did not send the budget,” said the USLM representatives.

The union claims that during this year there were four versions of the budget draft, but these were sent back to Metrorex following observations made in the approval circuit.

There is a way out of the deadlock, however.

The situation does not mean that Metrorex has permanently lost the subsidy for the rest of the year.

The legislation allows for the approval of budgets of state-owned companies that exceeded the initial deadline by October 31, but the authority under which the company is subordinate must also conduct an analysis of the causes for which the legal deadline was not respected and, if applicable, the persons responsible. Once the budget is approved in this procedure, the suspension of funds can cease.

Unionists say that in recent days the Metrorex management and the Ministry of Transport have been trying to unblock the situation.

„Yesterday I had a meeting with the Metrorex management, which was urgently called to the minister, and I understood that they are doing everything they can to approve the budget, down to the last hundred meters, at the 13th hour,” USLM reported.

Almost 1,000 employees less than the approved number of positions

According to figures presented by USLM in the press conference, Metrorex has 5,922 approved positions, but it would currently operate with approximately 4,934 employees, almost 1,000 fewer.

„People have almost come to sleep at work, because if they go home they don’t have time to come back,” union representatives said, describing the high level of overtime.

USLM claims that the deficit cannot be quickly covered through hiring, because a large part of Metrorex staff works in special conditions, underground, and some positions require specific medical, psychological and professional conditions.

The Metrorex subsidy dispute

The financial conflict is older than the current budget procedural issue.

USLM claims that the compensation required for 2026 through the Public Services Contract is approximately 1.27 billion lei, while the amount initially made available to the company was significantly lower.

The union had previously stated that the Ministry of Finance had indicated an amount of approximately 750 million lei for Metrorex, given that the public services contract provided for compensation of 1.27 billion lei.

The undercompensation issues did not arise in 2026. In Metrorex’s official documents regarding previous years, the company showed that for the period 2018-2024, the differences between the calculated compensation and the amounts actually received had reached almost 986 million lei.

Unionists reject, in this context, the claims that Metrorex represents a „black hole” for the state budget and claim that the company performs more functions than simply operating trains.

„Metrorex is a network administrator, Metrorex is a railway operator, it ensures its own energy supply, the automation area through fiber optics and telecommunications, and also carries out civil protection activities,” claimed USLM representatives.