Hunedoara miners stay underground to protest lower wages after transfer

On Tuesday morning, roughly fifty miners who had been moved from the Lupeni mine to the Vulcan mine in Hunedoara county stayed below ground, refusing to end their shift as a protest against salary discrepancies. The night-shift crew was supposed to surface after 06:00, but they stayed underground, causing a cascade that stopped day-shift workers who arrived at that time from beginning their duties. The transfers were part of the shutdown of the Lupeni exploitation, and the miners sought the move to keep working and to complete the service period needed for pension eligibility.

Their first pay slips at Vulcan showed lower wages than those received at Lupeni for comparable roles, a difference the mine attributes to its own wage scale. The workers are demanding clarification on how their earnings are calculated after the transfer.