Rumania - Trade union member fired for taking part in a wildcat strike against unpaid salaries

In April 2014, more than 300 employees at the Maglierie Cristian factory staged a wildcat strike, complaining their salaries were late and fearing they would not even be able to give their families a decent meal for Easter. Cristi Deseanu, 29, one of the strikers, was dismissed together with a colleague who was another vocal protestor at the strike, but luckily their colleagues were eventually paid. Despite the senior company official having stated that Deseanu quit his job voluntarily, company papers showed that the firm effectively dismissed him. The unfair dismissal was based on an internal disciplinary finding, showing that Mr Deseanu took part in an unauthorised strike tarnishing the image of the company. The Italian-owned knitwear factory, Maglierie Cristian Impex, is the biggest employer in the area of Calafat; it has produced clothes for big names such as Kenzo, Escada, Marc O’Polo, Faconnable and Inditex and for the Spanish-based giant whose brands include Zara and Massimo Dutti. Factory owners say they face intense pressure from brands to keep costs low. The workers, who are overwhelmingly women, are often hired on the legal minimum wage of a couple of hundred euros a month and may earn even less; they can wait months to get their pay, which is far below the “living wage” set in Romania.