May 30, 2017
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Newsroom, 30.05.2017, 14:08
STRIKE Air traffic, which has been disrupted in Romania after ground controllers have today gone into an all out strike, is coming back to normal. The strikers were mainly discontented with the lack of a new labor contract and the fact that no more personnel are being hired. We recall that their negotiations with ROMATSA, the state company that has the monopoly of traffic control in Romania, ended in a deadlock on Monday. Transport Minister Razvan Cuc has dismissed allegations about ROMATSA’s bankruptcy, announcing instead a new strategy for the company’s development. He accused the strikers of trying to disrupt the Pentecost holidays of the Romanians. About three thousand planes are daily transiting Romania’s airspace and under the law, ground controllers must monitor a third of these flights. On May 12th they went on two hours token strike.
LAW The Labour Committee with the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest is to draw today the final report on the unified pay scale bill, after talks on the law were completed on Monday. The law is to be put up for discussion in a plenary session next week. Labour Minister Olguta Vasilescu announced as early as the beginning of talks that the amendments adopted by the Senate had exceeded the 7 billion euros ceiling envisaged for the salary fund for the following four years and that it cannot support any more pay rises. Backed by the parties in the ruling coalition, the PSD and ALDE, as well as by the UDMR, the unified pay scale bill has been criticised by the right-wing opposition, who said that the budgetary impact and funding source for the pay rises weren’t clear.
INVESTIGATION The Parliament Investigation Committee is continuing the inquiry into the organisation and unfolding of the presidential election of 2009 won by the right-wing candidate, Traian Basescu against his opponent, Social-Democrat Mircea Geoana. State secretaries with the Interior Ministry in 2009 and Geoana himself were heard by the committe on Monday. Geoana said he had information about voting irregularities in the Diaspora, but technically speaking, it’s difficult for a party to assure a proper turnout and control over so many polling stations abroad. Setting up the aforementioned investigation committee was decided after a controversial journalist had blown the whistle on alleged political interference in the election process eight years ago.
TENNIS The world’s fourth tennis player Simona Halep is today taking on Slovakian Jana Cepelova in the first round of the Roland Garros tennis tournament. Also today, Romanian Sorana Carstea takes on Shuai Peng of China. Three Romanians who played in the tournament’s first round, namely Ana Bogdan, Monica Niculescu, Irina Begu were eliminated without winning a set. Patricia Tig abandoned the game while she was being led by Anastasia Pavliucenkova of Russia 6-1, 1-0.
