Radio România Internațional

Tag: bonuses

  • October 23, 2023

    October 23, 2023

    FOODSTUFFS The cap on mark-ups for
    basic foodstuffs will be extended by another 90 days, under a draft emergency order posted on the
    home page of the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry. Nine other products
    will be added to the list, including tomato broth, margarine, yeast, sour cream.
    On August 1 a government order took effect, under which prices for 14 basic
    foodstuffs were capped, following discussions with processors, distributors and
    retailers. PM Marcel Ciolacu said the cap on basic foodstuffs contributed to
    reducing the inflation rate below 9% last month.


    NATO
    Romania will continue to contribute to improving regional and Euro-Atlantic security,
    including, among others, as a stability pillar at the Black Sea, president
    Klaus Iohannis Monday told the participants to the opening ceremony of the
    fully operational NATO Multinational Corps South-East command centre in Sibiu,
    central Romania. The president mentioned that in 2018, at the NATO Summit in Brussels, he
    communicated Romania’s intention to add a land corps to the Allied command and
    control structure in Romania, in order to strengthen the planning and operation
    of NATO’s forces and structures in Romania-the NATO Force Integration Unit, the
    Multinational Division South-East Command and the Multinational Brigade
    South-East. Mr. Iohannis also said that strengthening NATO’s deterrence and
    defence posture at the Black Sea remains a top long-term objective. The
    Multinational Corps South-East in Sibiu is part
    of the NATO force structure and ensures the command
    and control of Allied land operations in any situation, including crises and
    war, to bolster the NATO deterrence and defence posture in Romania and
    Bulgaria.



    FAC The Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu takes
    part today in the Foreign Affairs Council meeting held in Luxembourg. According
    to the Romanian foreign ministry, the agenda includes talks on the situation in
    Israel and the region following the terrorist attacks of Hamas, Russia’s
    aggression against Ukraine and the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The
    EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, will also discuss his visit to China, on October 12 to 14, the Belgrade – Pristina Dialogue, and the Sahel region.
    On the sidelines of the meeting, Luminiţa Odobescu will take part in the
    EU-Central Asia ministerial meeting.


    EDUCATION Public education staff in Romania are to receive
    these days the annual bonus obtained following the strike at the end of the
    previous academic year. Over 326,000 employees in the sector will benefit from
    this annual bonus, amounting to EUR 300 for teaching staff and EUR 100 for
    administrative staff. The government has also decided to extend the deadline
    for the submission of educational voucher applications, through which EUR 100
    vouchers are given once a year to an estimated 410,000 underprivileged children
    for the purchase of clothes and school supplies.


    RALLIES Protesters took to the streets on Sunday as well
    across Europe, to support either the Palestinian or the Israeli cause and the approx.
    200 hostages taken by Hamas. In London, 20,000 people demanded the release of
    the people kidnapped by the Islamists, after the previous day nearly 100,000
    demanded an end to the slaughter in Gaza. In Paris, nearly 15,000 protested
    against Israel’s shelling civilian areas, with similar rallies in Sarajevo and Istanbul,
    while in Geneva the families of the hostages contacted the headquarters of the
    Red Cross and the High UN Commissioner for Human Rights. In Germany, president
    Frank-Walter Steinmaier and PM Olaf Scholz pleaded for the eradication of antisemitism.


    THEATRE Bucharest is hosting the National Theatre
    Festival until October 30th. The theme chosen for this year’s edition is Laboratories
    of the Sensitive. The plays chosen for the festival were selected out of over
    150 performances that premiered in the 2022-2023 season in state and
    independent theatres in Romania. (AMP)

  • Talks on public sector employees

    Talks on public sector employees

    Parliament’s special committees have greenlit the 2021 state and social
    security budget bills in the form presented by the Government. A final vote
    will be given in Tuesday’s plenary sitting. As regards the law on the salaries
    of public sector employees, Labor Minister Raluca Turcan said the form
    conceived by Labor Ministry will also stipulate a few basic principles on
    calculating salaries and which bonuses can have a set value or can be
    discarded. The Romanian official said there are certain categories of employees
    who receive additional bonuses worth 85% of their salaries, and that under the
    new law all useless bonuses will be eliminated, such as the bonus for
    neuro-psychological stress conditions or confidentiality bonuses, and some
    incomes will be frozen while other lower incomes will benefit from a faster
    increase. The Government will look into another bill drafted by the Labor
    Ministry banning the aggregation of pensions with state-paid salaries. Raluca
    Turcan said that, considering the existence of a significant trend among
    public sector employees who retire and later get a job in the public sector,
    the Ministry wants to give public sector employees the possibility of working
    until a later point in their life, without, however, benefitting from an
    aggregate payment of both pensions and salaries. In turn, Prime Minister Florin
    Cîţu says bill elaborated by the Labor Ministry is very good and a normal
    undertaking, and every person must decide which of two to opt for.


    It is a bill we’ve discussed within our coalition. I find it to be very
    good. You know we’ve tried to implement it last year as well. I believe it is
    normal, when you retire, to decide whether you want to be paid a pension or
    stay hired in the public sector, in which case you renounce your pension.


    The system was previously introduced by the Boc Cabinet in 2009, in the
    context of the global recession, for any incomes exceeding a certain ceiling.
    Teachers were exempted from the rule, but eventually the law was abrogated in
    2014 by the Government led by Victor Ponta. With respect to this new bill, some
    managers said they are seeking complementary solutions. Education Minister Sorin
    Cîmpeanu said the education sector allows for hourly payments to keep teachers in
    the department after they retire, otherwise the number of unqualified teachers
    would increase. In this sense, Minister Turcan said the bill stipulates certain
    measures to prevent the blocking of key sectors. The Social-Democrats in
    opposition have harshly criticized the initiative. Senator Gabriela Firea
    posted on social media that the draft law is in fact a condemnable attempt at
    increasing the retirement age to 70. (V.P.)





  • Draft budget under debate

    Draft budget under debate

    The draft state budget for the current year is based on a deficit of around 7% of the GDP and, according to the coalition Government, will support economic recovery and stop excessive and ungrounded spending from public money. Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu promises a resettling of the economy, also by fixing what he calls the abnormalities introduced in the legislation, in the last four years, by the former Social-Democratic administrations, as well as maintaining the trust of the European Commission, foreign investors and rating agencies. He has also stated he is waiting for detailed reports on the situation of state-owned companies, including plans to restructure those that have reported losses.



    In the budgetary system, the head of the Government has also said, the expenses representing bonuses amount to around 600 million lei, the equivalent of 120 million euros. In pandemic conditions, with very high health expenditures, the amputation of these bonuses would block the haemorrhage of funds, the Government says, giving as an example the so-called computer bonus or the COVID bonus, accounting for 30% of the base salary, which is received by prefecture employees. The package of austerity measures also stipulates that childrens allowances remain unchanged, pensions will increase only from January 1, 2022, this year there will be no more holiday vouchers, and students will no longer benefit from complete free rail transport.



    From the opposition, the Social Democratic Party, which has the largest parliamentary group, has already announced that it will table amendments for all important chapters in the draft budget. The Social Democrats accuse lack of vision and solutions for the current issues. It is a budget of austerity, of cuts, it is not people-oriented and does not give good signals for the economy – the leaders of the left say.



    Beyond the disputes between politicians, austerity measures threaten to escalate tensions in society. Since the beginning of the year, the headquarters of the Executive, of ministries or parties have been picketed, practically, every day, by dissatisfied trade unionists. Nurses, police staff or prison guards, locomotive drivers or civil servants, all demand decent salaries, fair pensions, quality public services.


    The leaders of one of the biggest union federations in the country, CNS Alfa, say Romania needs a development budget, not an austerity one. Operators in the HORECA industry, already affected by the restrictive measures adopted due to the pandemic, are not at all happy with the announcement that no more holiday vouchers will be issued this year. The Employers Organization of Hotels and Restaurants in Romania talks about losses of about 7 billion euros in 2020, in an area that employs 400 thousand people, ie 7% of Romanias active workforce, and produces 5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. (M.I.)


  • The state of emergency to be extended

    The state of emergency to be extended

    The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has announced that the state of emergency declared on March 16 to fight the spread of the new coronavirus will be extended by another month. As compared to other countries, the number of people infected with the new virus in Romania has not been very high so far, said President Iohannis who, nevertheless, warned the population not to relax yet and urged them to continue observing the social distancing measures imposed by the authorities, given that the peak of the pandemic has not been reached yet.



    Klaus Iohannis: “Following a thorough analysis, we have concluded that we need to extend the state of emergency. Therefore, I have called on the Government to come up with proposals that should be included in the next decree. This week we will draft the text and early next week I will issue a new decree that extends the state of emergency by one month. This extension is absolutely necessary to control the evolution of the pandemic.



    In relation to protective equipment, the president has announced that a new transport of face masks and hazmat suits for the medical staff will arrive in Romania this week.



    Klaus Iohannis: “Everyone knows that it has been a little complicated to purchase protective equipment: masks, hazmat suits, and ventilators. The measures taken by the government have now produced the first significant results. This week well receive 2.5 million face masks for the medical staff, almost 5 million masks for the gendarmes and police and as many as 8 million masks for the population. Also, in the coming days we are waiting for almost 500 thousand hazmat suits for physicians and other medical staff.



    Furthermore, the Romanian government has approved bonuses for the entire medical staff that gets in contact with patients infected with Covid-19. 75 thousand physicians, auxiliary staff, ambulance workers and paramedics that treat such patients will receive 2,500 lei, that is a little more than 500 Euros per month. Only the income tax of 10% will be levied on the sum, the other contributions not being deducted.



    At the same time, one thousand social and community workers will receive 2 thousand lei (around 400 Euros) per month to take care of people isolated in their homes, lonely people or old people over 65. The money, a total of 810 million Euros, comes from European funds, which will be used to also cover entirely for all the purchases of medical equipment.



    In another development, on Monday, the Romanian government discussed the first budget adjustment for 2020. The finance minister Florin Citu has announced that most of the money will be channeled to the health and labor ministries. (translation by L. Simion)

  • The government and trade unions reach agreement

    The government and trade unions reach agreement

    After talks between the government and trade unions, the only thing we know for sure is that the strike planned for Friday will no longer be held. Spontaneous protests erupted in April in hospitals around the country. On Monday this week, trade unions also staged a 2-hour warning strike.



    The protests were the result of reforms initiated by the government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. They promised that salary increases would be so generous that the 15,700 Romanian doctors who are now working abroad will want to come back. Indeed, doctors salaries have increased spectacularly, from several hundred to several thousand euros. Nurses salaries have also benefited from generous increases.



    However, the ministrys decision to cap bonuses to 30% of the basic salary has led to severe drops in the incomes of orderlies, biologists and pharmacists. The healthcare minister Sorina Pintea now says the government will again amend the law on public sector salaries. The changes will only cover the way in which bonuses are granted, the labour minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu has pointed out. She says on-duty time performed by doctors and nurses will no longer be subject to the 30% cap. The positions of midwife and healthcare assistant will be considered equivalent to that of nurses. Specialised hospitals and certain ambulance services will be able to supplement their staffs bonuses in certain situations. The agreement between the government and trade unions also provides that all employees who lost money as a result of the new salary law will be reimbursed. Talks will also resume on the collective employment contract.



    Leonard Barascu, the leader of SANITAS, the most influential trade union in the sector, said the agreement has put an end to the labour conflict. Commentators say, however, that this does not heal the most acute problems in the system: old hospitals with precarious equipment and full of bacteria, shortages of sometimes essential medicine, insufficient medical staff and still unmotivated, if not downright hostile to patients, despite the generous pay rise.



    Patients perception is relevant in this sense. According to a European Commission report, almost 60% of the Romanians who say they are affected by corruption say this phenomenon is most likely to occur in the public healthcare system. The head of the National Anticoruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi confirms that medical services, hospital funding and staff employment and promotion are some of the areas most affected by corruption. Kovesi also gave a few examples: the going bribe is 1,500 euros for a job as an orderly, 2,500 euros for a nurse and 1,000 to drive the ambulance car. Her examples provide support for the voices who say the problem is not that the system is under-funded, but that too much money is lost because of corruption.


    (translated by: Cristina Mateescu)