The miners from the Paroseni and Uricani coal mines in the Jiu Valley sparked a spontaneous protest on Monday and nearly a hundred of them blocked themselves underground, threatening to go on hunger strike.

They are unhappy that they don’t know what will happen to them from the beginning of next year, when the two mines would be closed.

The protesters request the extension of the Ordinance 36, which guarantees them compensatory payments and seniority in work for two years, for those who fulfill the conditions of retirement during this time, as well as employment at the mines within the Hunedoara Energy Complex for those who cannot still retire.

About 300 employees could be laid off, according to Agerpres. “At the Paroseni mine there are 50 miners protesting underground and another 35 have descended into the Uricani mine and are protesting there. People are desperate because the Uricani and Paroseni mines are closed permanently, and 300 of the employees of these mines are to be laid off, in the conditions under which Ordinance 36, which provided for compensatory payments and seniority in work for two years, was not extended by the Government. In August, such a normative act was discussed, but it received a negative opinion from the Ministry of Finance, and since then nothing has been done yet,” the president of the “Huila” Union, Laszlo Domokos, told Agerpres.

According to him, the state of concern among the people is high, because there are two months until the end of the year, and in the case of the closure of the Paroşeni and Uricani mines, the employees who will be laid off should receive, on December 1, the notice of termination of their contracts.