Trade unions: U.S. Steel violating agreement by sacking workers

The decision of U.S. Steel Kosice to scrap 29 white-collar jobs as of April 1 goes against the 2013 memorandum between the Government and U.S. Steel Košice, representatives of the KOVO trade union and the company's trade unions stated at a press conference on Thursday. "The memo allows achieving more effective organisation structures only via attrition and termination of job contracts following mutual agreement with affected staff", said U.S. Steel Košice trade union leader Mikuláš Hintoš. "We view this as an unfair approach at a time when we'd accepted the option of early retirement for a financial compensation as embedded in the collective agreement", said Hintoš. Eighty people recently agreed to terminate their contracts with the company. "We had expected that this would be the last of the lay-offs, so we were shocked to hear that another almost 30 people are to be dismissed", stated Hintoš, adding that people at U.S. Steel now feel insecure. "I can't rule out that this move is aimed at cleaning the company before putting it on sale", said Hintoš. Meanwhile, the trade unions have sent a letter to Prime Minister Robert Fico reporting on the situation, and said that they also may organise a protest. U.S. Steel Košice, for its part, points to a slump in steel prices, and claims that the lay-offs are in line with the Labour Code, collective agreement with the unions and the aforementioned memo.