The recent political
\ncrisis in Bucharest has raised fears that the public sector salary law will be
\nleft aside for a while and its implementation delayed. Moreover, the removal of
\nthe Social-Democratic Cabinet headed by Sorin Grindeanu, who initiated the bill
\nin the first place, and the prospects of its being replaced by a government of
\na different political colour had the pessimists believe that the law,
\nbenefiting a large part of the population, would be forgotten. However,
\neverybody’s fears were dispelled when it was announced that president Iohannis has
\npromulgated the law. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A communiqu\u00e9 issued
\nby the Presidential Administration reads that the head of state supports the
\nneed for a sustainable increase in the salaries of public employees, in order
\nfor their living standard to increase. The president has also stressed the fact
\nthat it is the responsibility of the parties that make up the ruling coalition
\n– the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats – to
\nensure a balanced growth and to harmonise the income growth objective with that
\nof maintaining Romania’s macro-economic and budgetary stability. This law
\nshould solve the salary issues facing the public sector, but without causing
\nother problems instead, the president also said. Any subsequent budget
\nadjustments should be made in a transparent, credible and responsible manner,
\nwithout affecting sectors of utmost importance for the development of Romania’s
\neconomy, namely investments and infrastructure projects. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The business
\ncommunity is worried that the Executive will introduce additional taxes and fees
\nfor private businesses in order to secure the money needed to increase salaries
\nin the public sector. Here is the president of the National Council of Small
\nand Medium-Sized Enterprises Liviu Rogojinaru:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As long as we don’t
\nknow where the money comes from, as long as these salary increases are not
\nbased on a set of competence criteria, we are afraid that the Government, not
\nknowing where to get the money from, will turn towards the private sector and
\nwill say: OK, let’s levy some extra taxes and fees, because this is the only
\nplace that we can take money from without too much trouble.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
There are trade
\nunion representatives who are not very happy with the new law either. The
\npresident of the Cartel Alfa Trade Union Confederation Bogdan Hossu has stated
\nthat the law will not solve, as it should, the salary gaps existing in the
\npublic sector, as there is no salary grid, for instance, for local public
\ngovernment employees. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The public salary
\nlaw stipulates that over the coming five years, state employees’ salaries will
\ngrow by more than 50% on average. State sector employees say that the law
\nfinally does them justice, all the more so as they were the first victims of
\nthe salary slashes operated in 2010, when the global economic crisis also
\nspread to Romania. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanias President Klaus Iohannis promulgates the new public sector salary law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":74102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[32257],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-74101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-public-sector-pay-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n