A roundup of the week's main stories
The strike of the healthcare staff has been declared illegal
The Bucharest Court on Thursday ruled that the strike of the healthcare staff held early this week was illegal. The decision can still be appealed, but it is binding. The magistrates thus agreed with the Health Ministry officials who claimed, among other things, that the trade unionists' action did not comply with the legal conditions for starting a labor conflict. The healthcare staff went on strike on October 31, asking for higher salaries and better working conditions. On November 1st the protest was suspended, after the parliamentary committees approved a pay rise for the healthcare staff and the trade unionists received assurances that the amendments would be voted in the plenum of Parliament next week. The labour minister, Dragoş Paslaru, has warned that these pay rises could affect the country's economy.
The government criticizes the pay rises and the elimination of charges proposed by Parliament.
The Romanian government believes that the pay rises and the elimination of more than 100 charges, as proposed by Parliament proposals, will have a negative impact on next year's state budget.
Dacian Cioloş: "As is customary for Romania's Parliament before elections, a number of measures have been passed in recent months, which raise salaries for various categories of public sector employees, without thorough previous calculations. The total amount of money stands at around 9 billion lei, that is more than 1% of the GDP."
The budget impact of the populist laws voted before the elections amounts to 2 billion euros, which will lead to either a deeper budget deficit or to a reduction of the funds to be allotted for investments. Moreover, the imbalances between several categories of state employees will increase. If the bills are passed in the form wanted by Parliament, the Government will challenge the salary law at the Constitutional Court. In the run up to the December 11 elections, on Tuesday the MPs in the joint budget - finance and labour committees amended the order on the salaries of state employees and introduced new categories of staff in the education and healthcare systems that will benefit from pay rises or bonuses, although salaries in these fields have already been increased in the past year by an average 30%. These pay rises were announced shortly after the MPs passed a draft law on the elimination of more than 100 non-fiscal taxes, including the radio and TV license fees.
The government sets maximum levels for mandatory motor-vehicle liability insurance policies.
Wednesday's decision by the Romanian Government to impose certain caps, for a period of 6 months, on the mandatory car liability insurance policies, has triggered conflicting reactions depending on the interests of the sides involved. The National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies notified the European Commission on the 6-month freeze on car liability insurance prices, claiming that the measure infringes on the principles of free market and competition as stipulated in the Romanian Constitution. On the other hand, road carriers have hailed the measures passed by the government. Moreover, they call on Parliament to issue a new insurance law in these 6 months, before the expiry of the government's ordinance on capping car liability insurance policies. Transporters also ask for the future law to ensure total transparency as regards the calculation of tariffs for all categories of vehicles held by natural persons and legal entities. The insurance companies that will sell insurance policies at prices exceeding the maximum value set by the government risk big fines. New regulations in the insurance field were adopted by the government after the protests organized by transporters. They have frequently contested the very high prices they had to pay especially for trucks and the fact that car liability insurances policies are growing by the year.
Criminal prosecution to expand in case related to the 1989 anti-communist revolution.
Almost 27 years after the fall of the Ceausescu regime, army prosecutors have expanded in rem the criminal proceedings in the so-called "Revolution case" to investigate crimes against humanity committed after the 22nd of December 1989. Prosecutor Marian Lazăr explains the reasons of this decision.
Marian Lazar: "It transpires from documents that are part of the case that, in order to hold on to power, through their actions and measures, the new political and military leadership instated after the 22nd of December 1989 caused the death, gunshot injury, physical and psychological damage and unlawful deprivation of freedom of a large number of persons, actions that fall into the scope of crimes against humanity."
The actions in question point to the existence of a plan aiming to create a state of confusion among the armed forces and thus enable the new leaders to take over power and acquire legitimacy. According to a document from the Military Prosecutor's Office with the High Court of Cassation and Justice, more than 1,200 people were killed in the events of December 1989, of whom 800 died after 22nd of December, when the regime collapsed. More than 5,000 people were wounded and several thousand unlawfully deprived of freedom and subjected to bad treatment. The reopening of the Revolution case, which earned Romania a series of convictions at the European Court of Human Rights, comes a few months after interim prosecutor general Bogdan Licu called for the reopening of the inquiries. According to Licu, the ruling to close the case in October 2015 was ungrounded and illegal, and the legal classification of the deeds was wrong.
Useful Links
Copyright © . All rights reserved