EMPLOYEES of Kromberg & Schubert in Kolárovo, near Nové Zámky, have entered into a dispute with the company's management. On February 28 about 500 workers supported by trade unionists held a rally in front of the firm's premises claiming that the company is not fulfilling commitments laid down in their collective agreement. Other reasons given by workers for the protest were a flawed management style and poor working conditions, the SITA newswire wrote.
Kromberg & Schubert's factory in Kolárovo produces cables for cars and employs over 2,000 people.
"The atmosphere in the company is very tense, people are often intimidated and their bonuses are cut following even minor mistakes," the president of the metalworkers' trade union organisation KOVO, Emil Machyna, told SITA. "Employers in other countries would not dare to do this."
The employees criticise the plant's management for gratuitously adjusting the rules for payment of bonuses, tough production norms - which they have to meet regardless of the number of people actually at work - and having to work too many over-time hours, the Pravda daily reported.
At the rally workers said that they were determined to increase pressure on the company's managers.
The management rejected all the allegations.
"We have called on them several times to submit their solutions, but they have not offered any proposals," the company's economic director, Jaroslav Hric, told Pravda. "They didn't even bother to inform us about their plan to hold a rally in front of the company's gates."
