PGNiG's unions against government's new restructuring plan

The trade unions at the oil and gas extraction and distribution company PGNiG are critical about the Economy Ministry's strategy for the gas sector's restructuring. The newly presented plan provides for the company to spin off 23 gas trading companies, which will be then privatised. They would be managed by six distribution companies, partially owned by PGNiG, which itself would remain fully state-owned. The trade unionists would prefer the strategy that had been earlier worked out by the company's management, under which PGNiG would be transformed into a holding company and floated on the stock exchange. Only 44-45% would remain in the Treasury's hands. The daily newspaper Puls Biznesu reported that there were no indications from the Economy Ministry why it did not like the management's strategy. According to the trade unionists, the ministry's programme does not only introduce chaos into the system, which would result in higher gas prices, but does not solve the problem of PGNiG's debt either. kp,bb