Emergency debate on unitary pay bill
The unitary pay bill, presented by the leftist Government in Bucharest as a priority, will be debated urgently in the Senate.
Florentin Căpitănescu, 03.05.2017, 13:14
The unitary pay bill for public sector employees will be debated urgently in the Senate following the pro-debate vote of 69 senators, with only 34 senators voting against it. The draft law has already been submitted for approval to the Government, the Economic and Social Council, the Legislative Council and other institutions. The deadline for drafting the approvals is one week.
The vice-president of the Senate, Social Democrat Claudiu Manda, explains: “We will have these approvals next week, then we will meet in the Permanent Bureau and submit the bill to the Senate committees for approval and reporting, with a deadline we are going to set. All our colleagues need to read the bill carefully to be able to make amendments if necessary. But of course, we have a deadline assumed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, according to which the law should be adopted by the beginning of the second semester, so that it can come into force.”
The leader of the Social Democratic senators, Serban Nicolae, further explains: “All parliamentary groups, both from the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, have received a copy of the unitary pay bill. Debates have already been held in the public space, and it is useless to prolong these debates without any reason, ahead of the bill being debated by the committees, by Parliament. Moreover, this bill is to be sent to the Chamber of Deputies, and one of the measures is to take effect starting July 1, 2017. Extending the debating and adoption procedure of this draft law would be unjustified and would delay the regulation of the unitary pay system for public sector employees.”
The opposition has criticized the request of the Social Democrats. Alina Gorghiu, a Liberal senator, explains: “I don’t think we can afford to go on with this charade: we send the bill to Parliament, we debate it fast or rather we don’t debate it at all, and we come up with a draft law which is doomed to fail.”
The unitary pay bill provides, among other things, for pay rises in the public sector in stages, in the next 5 years. The first rise will be operated on July 1. The bill has been harshly criticized by trade unions in education, unhappy with the position of teachers on the salary scale and the pay level for auxiliary staff.
(Translated by Lacramioara Simion)
