Sources within the company said that this was a gesture of goodwill from the Kazakh owners, who recently took over 100 percent of Rompetrol, after businessman Dinu Patriciu sold his remaining 25 percent share package. The new owner has also begun a series of changes in terms of management and procedures.
“Some 50-60 percent of the nearly 9,000 employees of the group agreed to a 20 percent salary cut for the first six months of this year. On 1 July, if the company had not registered an operating profit of $100 million, the measure was to have been extended by a further six months,” sources said, adding that even though the profit level was not met, the Kazakhs decided to suspend the salary reduction.
“With the support of shareholders, and the solidarity of Rompetrol employees in this period, we were able to maintain and consolidate our current activities, and implicitly preserve the jobs. Thus, as of 1 July, we managed to eliminate the voluntary suspension of 20 percent of the monthly salaries of employees,” Rompetrol officials told Business Standard yesterday.
