Unified pay scale bill, in the Senate

Unified pay scale bill discussed in Senate on Monday

Bogdan Matei, 22.05.2017, 13:08

The unified pay scale bill has taken a procedural step forward, and has reached the Senate of Romania. On Thursday, the draft passed by the leftist Government was endorsed by the Senates labour committee, but not without significant amendments. They provide for a 15% raise, as of January 1, 2018, of salaries in the decentralized agencies subordinated to the Environment Ministry, as well as of the salaries of the National Integrity Agency staff, who have access to classified documents and information.

As proposed by the National Liberal Party and by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, in Opposition, another amendment was endorsed, which gives a roughly 300 euro pay increase to all town mayors and deputy mayors. This increase however is not to apply to the Bucharest mayor general and deputy mayor general, or to the chairs and deputy chairs of county councils.

Also in the Opposition, Senator Florina Presaga, from the Save Romania Union, the only member of the Senates labour committee to have voted against the bill, dismissed that amendment as “a competition between political parties in increasing the salaries of local administration chiefs. According to commentators, central government leaders thus try to secure the loyalty of local bigwigs, their most efficient vote collectors in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Social Democratic Labour Minister Olguta Vasilescu thanked the Opposition Senators for their amendments, which, she said, were “very good and intended to improve the bill. She had previously stated that changes were necessary, because the current legislation had generated many inequities in the public sector and triggered, among other things, the massive migration of Romanian doctors abroad.

The new bill provides for an average 56% increase of public sector salaries, with substantial raises, of more than 100%, for lower-level positions, and with smaller raises towards the top of the salary pyramid. The Liberals say they agree that a new salary law is necessary, but argue that the leftist Governments bill will trigger salary cuts, by no means negligible, for some categories of public sector employees, which in fact comes against the Constitution and may trigger a large number of lawsuits.

Although they have seen their sway lessen steadily in recent years, as the number of paying members has dropped, the leaders of the main trade union federations were invited last week to talks with the labour committee. Some of them warned that some articles in the new law would lead to pay cuts, while others were simply against the Constitution.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)