Romania’s new government endorses public sector pay rise

Under a new bill signed into law by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, public sector salaries will grow by 10%, while salaries in the healthcare sector will grow by 25%.

Daniela Budu, 25.11.2015, 14:07

The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has
signed into law a bill to raise the salaries of state employees and the
healthcare staff. According to the president, Romania’s 2016 state budget
should consider a long-term strategy for development, so that reforms could
begin in critical domains in the following months.

The Romanian prime minister Dacian Cioloş has given assurances that the rise in public
sector salaries will not affect the budget deficit target for 2016. He also
said that, to avoid cutting down on investments, the government would focus on
attracting European funds. The prime minister has also pointed out that,
besides these pay rises, which are important and justified, Romania should also
work out a programme for investments, so that the country’s economic growth
should not be based on consumption alone. Dacian Cioloş:

There will be no
cuts. We will focus instead on investments. The ministries with budgets for
investments, including the development and transport ministries, we will try to
absorb more European funds to carry out our investment programmes, as planned.
According to our estimates, we will manage to maintain the budget deficit
target under 3%.

In the first half of
November, the Chamber of Deputies passed the bill to raise public sector
salaries with 319 yes, 7 abstentions and 1 no vote. MPs say all state employees
should benefit from pay rises, not only public sector education and healthcare
employees. The bill was tabled by the Social Democratic Party. Its initiator,
Adrian Solomon, explained that it was necessary for the bill to be passed as
part of an emergency procedure because 2016 is an election year and the fiscal
responsibility law forbids pay rises in an election year. Although at first
they opposed the pay rise, the Liberals have eventually voted in favour of the
bill. In exchange, they asked for an impact study to be made, to make sure the
budget has enough resources to cover the additional expenses.

According to the new
government in Bucharest, the principles underlying its programme will be
transparency in the decision-making process, responsibility and openness to
dialogue. The government programme includes, among other things, the revision
of the major investment projects, reforms in the field of education and
healthcare, the consolidation of the rule of law and the organisation of next year’s
legislative and local elections in a fair and transparent manner.

(Translated by: L. Simion; edited by: C. Mateescu)