Florin Daniel Gheorghiu, president of the Romanian Postal Workers’ Union (SLPR), warned that the decision posed a threat to the security of employees’ and customers’ personal data, especially in the sensitive context of Romania’s parliamentary and presidential elections, which took place just three months after the move, bzi.ro wrote.
“Romania Post’s database includes the data of not only more than 20,000 employees, but also of customers, i.e. a significant part of the country’s population. I have an example of two colleagues who received calls from people with Moldovan accents who knew their names and asked about their bank accounts. One of the colleagues even filed a complaint with the police. I do not understand why the management decided to outsource the call center, and even permanently, to the Republic of Moldova. I believe that this data was used for electoral purposes, especially since the current director, like the former energy minister Sebastian Burduja, is engaged in political activities,” Gheorghiu said.
The Prosecutor General’s Office should take measures and prosecute all those who violated the law. All personal data was transferred to a non-EU state. Whoever did this actually prepared the election fraud three months before the elections. The Prosecutor General’s Office should investigate those involved and establish whether the CSAT (the country’s Supreme Council of Defense) had taken a decision on the matter, the trade unionist insists.
For his part, Romanian Post’s director general, Valentin Stefan, made the decision public in a post on the institution’s official Facebook page, saying it was “an important step towards modernization and improving the quality of services”.
“The national company Poșta Română has decided to move its Customer Service to the Republic of Moldova in order to improve the speed and quality of the answers provided to our customers. Every day we receive about 2000 calls and more than 200 e-mails. Thanks to a specialized partner, we can now respond faster and more efficiently – the average waiting time is only 30 seconds! We use high-performance telephony software and a modern CRM system to quickly identify and solve customer problems. We are confident that together with professional and market-respected partners, we will be able to offer the highest level of services and strengthen customer confidence in Poșta Română,” the statement said.
The director specified that the move is part of a larger plan for the international expansion of Poşta Română, which started in December 2022, when the first foreign branch was opened in Chisinau.
Amid the announcements, union leaders argued that the idea of Romania Post’s expansion is an illusion. “Every month, the director general proposes at the general meeting of shareholders to abolish and merge branches,” Florin Daniel Gheorghiu elaborated. – Romania Post is leaving the market, and there are whole communities, at least in rural areas, where one letter carrier serves five villages. Moreover, they have outsourced road transportation services. Instead of the Post having its own trucks for interregional transportation, it has outsourced this function to a private company.
Journalist and video blogger Bogdan Dumitru sharply criticized the decision by the Romanian Post’s management, saying the transfer of data to a non-EU country was a “serious strategic mistake” and a possible betrayal of citizens’ trust.
“What were these guys doing before the parliamentary and presidential elections? The database of Romanian citizens was transferred a year ago to Moldova. On the eve of the elections in Romania, on 24.08.2024, 3 months before them, the management of the Romanian Post decided to transfer the call center and the institution’s database to the Republic of Moldova, which is not an EU member state. How is it possible to do such a thing? It exceeds the inexcusable line of negligence. It is certainly a gross strategic mistake and a betrayal of the trust that citizens implicitly place in the state. The whole affair raises serious suspicions. It is not perceived as a mere tactical error, but as a real concession to digital sovereignty. Trade unionists have taken notice and statements were made to the police after employees were contacted by people who had confidential information about them,” Bogdan Dumitru said.
