Several hundred employees of the Damen Mangalia shipyard on Friday continued for the second consecutive day to protest in the company's courtyard, as their pay is more than three months overdue.
According to officials of the National Trade Union Bloc (NBS), the protest will continue until the relevant authorities find the solution so that the shipyard workers receive their outstanding wages.
Leader of the Free Trade Unions of Shipmen Laurentiu Gobeaja said that, although at the meeting that the trade unionists had on March 2 with the economy minister, they were promised that they would be paid the outstanding wages based on the amendment of the legislation on the Guarantee Fund for the payment of salary claims, but rules for the application of this piece of legislation have not yet been adopted.
"The employees have reached the subsistence limit due to the lack of money," Gobeaja said.
The Damen shipyard in Mangalia has been in insolvency since June 2024, and due to the lack of orders, its situation has become critical.
The company's receiver, Casa de Insolventa Transilvania (CITR), announced in March this year that Damen Shipyards Mangalia was entering the race for a strategic investor, and a reorganisation plan was submitted to the syndic judge.
Since 2025, the trade unionists at the Damen shipyard in Mangalia, a company with dismissed or employees on short-time work, have staged a series of protests, including at the Ministry of Economy and even before the Dutch Embassy and at the headquarters of the judicial administrator in Bucharest.
The Romanian government is the majority shareholder in the shipyard, with 51%, and the Dutch company Damen has 49% of the shares.
In 2023, the Damen group announced that it issued the notice of termination of the association agreement concluded in 2018 between Damen Holding BV and the Romanian state because, "by adopting Law no. 187/2023, the legal framework based on which the association between the Romanian state and Damen functioned with regard to the Mangalia shipyard was annulled", between the parties there being an international arbitration dispute. Subsequently, Damen Holding requested the insolvency of Damen Shipyards Mangalia, with the Court of Constanta opening, on June 19, 2024, the insolvency procedure.
In 2018, Damen invested in the Mangalia shipyard, acquiring the majority stake in the Korean company Daewoo, then agreeing to sell 2% of the shares to the Romanian government for the government to become the majority shareholder, with 51%, on the condition that the Dutch partner has operational and managerial control of the shipyard.
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