Corrections to the unitary salary law
The government issues emergency order to amend newly passed salary law.
Mihai Pelin, 23.02.2018, 13:08
The Romanian
Government has again modified the salary law. The reason for this decision was
that, as a result of shifting the obligation to pay social security
contributions from employers to employees, there would have been categories of
workers getting less money for medical leaves, including maternity leaves, as
compared to last year.
The categories
targeted by the latest changes are employees on medical leave for temporary
work disability, pregnant women and women who have just given birth, workers on
parental leave to care for their sick children as well as women on
pregnancy-related sick leave.
Prime Minister
Viorica Dancila has stated that all these categories will get as much money as
they did last year:
People on medical leave for temporary work
disability or on parental leave will benefit from the same rights and the same
incomes as those valid until January 1st, 2018.
The ordinance stipulates that women with children
will get the same amounts for medical leave until October 1st, and,
as regards the other categories of employees, the value of medical leave
benefits will remain as they were in 2017, until July 1st, 2018. The
transfer of the obligation to pay social security contributions from employers
to employee has triggered lots of controversies and even protests among several
categories of employees, who saw their salaries actually slashed.
The main opposition party in Romania, the National
Liberal Party, has filed a simple no-confidence motion against the Labour
Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu, criticising the new provisions, which, in their
opinion, have done even more harm to the salary system and the tax system in
general. The no-confidence motion, however, has been rejected. According to the
Labour Minister, the aim of the new salary law was to create a balanced public
salary system, as there were many employees being paid differently for doing
the same jobs.
