Ardaf, one of the best-known brands in insurance and number nine on the market, has started the biggest job slashing process in its history, with the number of employees set to halve, from 1,400 to 700, the Ardaf union leader, George Soare, told ZF.
"There will be a streamlining of the operations, which will entail personnel cutbacks, as well. Almost 200 people will be made redundant and 500 sales agents who work for the company based on an employment contract, will instead continue to work for it as sole traders," Soare says.
Ardaf’s restructuring comes after the insurer was taken over at the end of last year by Generali PPF holding company, held by the Italians at Generali and the Czechs at PPF. Ardaf is losing a lot of money, with losses over the last three years amounting to over 100 million euros. All the companies in the insurance sector have started to apply streamlining plans, given that the market will grow very little or not at all this year.
Ardaf’s management did not comment on the information about personnel cutbacks yesterday.
Constantin Paraschiv, chairman of the Federation of Insurance and Banking Unions, says that the turning of sales agents into sole traders is a "layoff in disguise".
"These agents will lose their fixed salary along with their employment contract and will work on commission. As sole traders, they will have to pay more taxes to the state. From our calculations, the taxes of these agents may amount to 52% of their incomes," Paraschiv explains.
In theory, the agents cannot be forced to become sole traders, says George Soare, but in practice many of them will agree to this change.
"There used to be loyalty and seniority perks, performance bonuses, luncheon vouchers. Those that lose their position of employees no longer get them," Ardaf’s union leader says.
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