Public sector salaries

Labour and finance ministry representatives are drafting a new emergency ordinance on public sector salaries in Romania.

Valentin Țigău, 25.04.2016, 13:19

Late last week, the Romanian Labour Minister Dragos
Paslaru announced that a new emergency ordinance on salaries in the public
sector, drafted together with the main stakeholders, might be ready by May 15th.
The draft will be under public debate for two weeks, and the Executive might
pass it on June 1st. This is actually the deadline, as according to
the law, an emergency ordinance can only be adopted within six months before
the start of general elections. The labour minister said the goal of the
ordinance would be to adjust the base salary in the public sector. The
government wants to obtain stakeholders’ approval, given that budget resources
are limited and only the lowest salaries will be increased. Under the new
ordinance, some 300,000 to 500,000 state employees might benefit from a salary
increase.

In another move, the Government spokesman Dan Suciu
has stated that the passing of the ordinance very much depends on whether the
document is accepted by stakeholders and, if they find more flaws than
benefits, the ordinance will not go through. Trade union federation leaders
have already announced that they are unhappy with the new bill and have warned
that inequalities will not disappear, but only move a little upwards from the
bottom of the salary grid. For such salary increases the government has 2
billion lei available, which is too small an amount according to trade unions,
which have announced they might stage protest meetings. Marius Sepi, the
first-vice-president of Sanitas trade union federation, believes that an
approach by ‘bits’ is not acceptable, as only some people would benefit from
such corrections. He said financing solutions must be found for this ordinance
to cover all types of employees.

A new meeting of the National Three-Party Council was
held on Friday at the Government, with government, employers’ associations and
trade unions discussing the principles governing the new ordinance. The
meetings will continue, with the aim of reaching a consensus as to the
provisions of the ordinance. According to the National Institute of Statistics,
there are 1.2 million state employees in Romania, out of a total active
population of 9 million people.

Economic analysts say that an increase in personnel
expenditure might increase the state budget deficit and, if other increases are
to occur, endorsed by Parliament, the risk of having to implement a new fiscal
consolidation period will also grow. Therefore, in the near future, in order to
strike a balance, expenditure will have to be curbed or more people will have
to be made redundant.