“It's not normal! I took another job”

Although the amount he receives monthly is consistent, and in the meantime he found another job, Condescu invokes a principle he considers discriminatory in calculating his pension.

After 1989, Marin Condescu, president of Pandurii in the year when Gorjeni were vice-champions in the first league, led the main trade union structures in the mining sector in the region, becoming the representative of miners' interests at regional and national level.

Now retired, after serving a three-year suspended sentence, Condescu spoke openly about his current life. Even if he is no longer active either in football or in the union world, the former leader of the Pandas has found a new job, engaging in a German photovoltaic construction company.

Even with the shelter of a private source of income, discussions about pensions concern Condescu. Questioned by GSP reporters, the former union leader deepened the subject.

Marin Condescu's pension: “That's all I have, net! I took another job”

Former leader of the miners from Oltenia, Marin Condescu sees in the taxation of pensions and in the changes made to the regime of work groups a violation of the rights gained during the years of contributions.

The context? Following the new pension law, which entered into force on September 1, 2024, those from the mining and energy sector were dissatisfied with the new pension recalculation formula, taking into account the harsh conditions in which they had to exercise their profession over the years.

“[Că tot e un subiect la modă în zilele noastre, dumneavoastră ce pensie aveți?] 10,000 lei, net! They have now withheld our tax again, but we hope to earn it. It's not normal, because all of us who are retired have already paid the State once.

That's our money! He (state no) should give us back, but now he stops us from them, taxes us one more time, although he taxed us for 43 years, while we were paying taxes there. Now, they suddenly put this contribution, this 10% tax on a class that they said was unresponsive, to set an example for others.

They hit a wall. They took our money and the rest… We'll see what happens next. I had a work group. Those of us who worked in the mining industry have work groups, I had group two. And I was 45 years old,” said Condescu.

Marin Condescu, the former head of Pandurii, in the interview given to Gazeta / PHOTO: Andrei Furnigă (GSP)

“[Vă ajunge suma aceasta de 10.000 de lei pe lună?] Well, I also got my second job. I was lucky enough to work at this company, also with an employment contract… I pay everything I need to the German state. I pay on the basis of the contract and health, and pension, and clean money in hand. So I somehow managed to find solutions. And it's very good,” added the former union leader.

“We had the wisdom not to participate in Mineriade”

Then he added:

“(…) I am part of a union structure that did not participate in Mineriade. Not even in '90! We had the wisdom to say that we cannot impose on others what we want. I have never participated!

Well, they criticized us at the time… Those who were in vogue. He was a journalist, who had “Midnight Millionaire” on Antenă, Tucă. And the story: “Why don't you participate?” Because it's not our fight! Can you imagine… If we had also come down from Maramureș, from up in Bucovina, Oltenia would also come… What would be the choice of this country?”, Marin Condescu testified, in the interview given to Gazeta in Târgu Jiu.

• Throughout his career, Condescu led several trade union structures, including the Union of Mining Trade Unions of Oltenia (USMO) and the National Mining-Energy Federation (FNME).

Someone from Valea Jiului says that, after I disappeared, the trade union movement was over. I believe that the unions will revive. If I could give a piece of advice, without anyone getting mad at me, it would be that everyone who is of retirement age should give way to others. When I retired from mining, I left and found a very good job. I didn't fill the post anymore, you end up blocking it at some point. I stayed from 1990 to 2016. I said since 2013 that I wanted to take a step back.

Today I am doing my old job. I am an employee of a German photovoltaic construction company and I find jobs for people who do not have jobs. I can't say I've changed a thing since working at the mine. I wake up every morning at 07:00, I see what the schedule is, I ask the boss what we have to do. Dealing with labor law, training and contracts with those who work for us, things are normal and I want as much as possible for all those who work to receive their money on time, to work in safe conditions. There are problems that occur daily, they are inherent in a production process… But I have a nice job, I still work with people, as I worked before.

– Marin Condescu, in the interview given to Gazeta

PHOTO. Marin Condescu over the years » The trade unionist-head of the club, in various poses: from the mine to the lodge

👉🏻In 2014, Condescu, a former trade union leader, was sent to court by the prosecutors of the Public Prosecutor's Office attached to the Gorj Court, being accused of embezzlement, money laundering, forgery in documents under private signature and use of forgery. In 2018, Marin Condescu was definitively sentenced by the Craiova Court of Appeal to a 3-year suspended prison sentence

Almost as much as Băsescu

Practical, Marin Condescu receives a pension close to that of former president Traian Băsescu. In an interview for Digi 24, the former head of state revealed that he receives 11,000 lei every month, the amount he arrived at following the new recalculations:

“I have 11,000 lei pension, so it is not a special pension. I retired with 2,950 lei, in November 2014, that was my pension then. In the meantime, there were the indexations plus the big pension increase now, with the new law. I earned 6,000 lei in retirement with the new pension law. That is why I say that something is wrong with such a transfer to the pension area”. said Băsescu, president of Romania between 2004 and 2014.