Demands of Education Unions
Talks between Gov't and trade unions in education have ended without an agreement.
România Internațional, 25.05.2016, 13:41
Salary negotiations between the Government and trade unions in the education sector will continue, after the Government previously proposed a 10% increase in the wages of teaching staff starting August next year.
For years, Romanian teachers have been demanding higher salaries, but policymakers have rarely seen their demands a priority. As such, few teachers are motivated to carry on teaching or pursue higher goals. Many of the young teachers, disappointed with the low salaries in the system, resign and switch to other lines of work. High performance is hard to achieve when many of them, pressed to take up additional work in order to earn their living, lack any motivation.
After a new round of negotiations, trade unions in the education sector have rejected the Governments proposals regarding the funds allotted to education. Unionists speak of at least 500 million lei worth of funds that the Government must spend in order to adjust the salary grid in the field of education. The president of the Federation of Trade Unions in Education, Marius Nistor, says he cannot agree with introducing this adjustment starting next year.
Marius Nistor: “This adjustment must be implemented much sooner. We cannot wait until 2017. In order to implement an increase of salaries able to reform the education system, we have to discuss the single salary law, with very clear prospects of salary increases in the field of education. So we are talking about two separate things, a Government order that should solve irregularities, and the single salary law that will regulate the increase in salaries.
Marius Nistor has also said that unless a solution is reached in the next round of negotiations, on June 1 trade unions would stage a rally in Bucharest. In turn, Labour Minister Dragos Pislaru says the adjustment of salaries in the field of education starting January 1, 2017 would entail a financial effort of 800 million lei. The stake is not to increase salaries, Dragos Pislaru argues, but to do away with discrepancies by means of adjusting salaries from the bottom up.
Dragos Pislaru: “I would like to remind you that we are talking here about a government order that targets a fair adjustment and correction of the salary grid, not necessarily a salary increase. The 10% salary hike, which is in fact 9.4%, represents an average increase in the payroll, but the main goal of the order is to operate adjustments and relocations in the salary grid.
Once the issue of salaries in the field of healthcare is solved, the Government will next address salaries in education, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has promised.
