Moldovan Railways (CFM) is in a dire situation, and its workers perhaps even more so. The rail operator has no money, since its business has fallen flat in the past year. The company’s lack of income is felt directly by its workers, who have not received wages since the summer of last year. There is hope that a new director can bring change, but he is not a controversy-free figure.
The rail operator has a wage debt of 10 million euros. Considering that Moldovan Railways maintains a minimum wage of 310 euros, that is quite a sizable amount of unpaid wages. A trade union has announced that workers may refuse to work altogether if they do not see money soon. Most employees are on the verge of quitting, the union says.
CFM profited from Ukraine’s grain exports, which were being diverted through Moldova temporarily. That lasted while the sea route from the Ukrainian port city of Odesa was considered unsafe during months of Russian attacks. However, Ukraine’s successful defense of its port and the sea export routes removed the need for grain transportation overland.
Despair at CFM
Moldovan Railways have operated without that boost in traffic for a while now and money has dried up. A mere 4 per cent of the country’s rail capacity is reportedly being used. As a result, the company cut employees’ work weeks short to save on expenditures last year, but it later turned out that workers had not received any wages at all since July 2024. Nearly a thousand employees quit their jobs “in despair” by January, write Moldovan media.
In order to resolve the wage issue, a trade union appealed to high-level politicians, including even president Maia Sandu. “We still hope that the country’s leadership will look at the railway employees and allocate some money from the state budget in 2025. It’s nothing, we haven’t seen any money allocated and we’ll see if the state doesn’t help us somehow, we’re simply going bankrupt,” said a union representative in January.
Change coming to the company?
There may be change coming to the company, however. It will get a new director by the name of Sergiu Cotelnic, who worked in management positions before at Moldovan Railways. His appointment was reportedly a proposal from trade unions. He can also count on support from the side of the government, said a Moldovan Deputy Prime Mininister.
As a first step, the government offered CFM diesel from the state reserve for the next four months. “We understand that CFM’s objective is the transport of goods, financial resources are very limited, and the government wants to enterprise to be functional”, he added.
Fresh CFM director Cotelnic told Moldovan media that he already has ideas on how to pay out wages to the company’s employees. A former director of Moldovan Railways, Oleg Tofilat, has doubts about Cotelnic’s suitability for the position.
Corruption accusations
“He was a pretty good line manager for some concrete tasks and I think he’s quite far from the challenges the company is facing. He’s a reasonable depot manager. To say that he has any ideas however, he doesn’t even speak the state language.” Cotelnic preferred to respond to press questions in Russian, rather than in Moldova’s state language Romanian.
“What does this have to do with managing a 500 million Moldovan lei hole in the company’s fund, with attracting hundreds of million of euros in investments?”, Tofilat asks. “That’s a completely different question.”
Moreover, Cotelnic has been implied to be involved in corruption schemes. When working as the manager of capital city Chisinau’s wagon depot, he is said to have set up a cigarette smuggling scheme and to have been directly involved in facilitating and coordinating it, say Moldovan media. Cotelnic has refrained from comment on these allegations.