Radio România Internațional

Tag: pay

Minimum Wages on the rise in Romania

As announced while the government was assuming responsibility for a new series of fiscal-budgetary laws, minimum salaries in Romania are to be raised by 10%, from 3,000 to 3300 RON, the equivalent of 660 euros. The beneficiaries of the new measures are over 1.8 million employees working mainly in transport, trade and SMEs.

The aforementioned pay raise is aimed at protecting the income of every employee, at the same time boosting employment, the purchase power and curbing illegal work. Other social categories in the low income bracket, such as the handicapped and those involved with various independent activities and intellectual property rights, are to also benefit the new measure.

This government will not give up on the priority of raising the minimum salary and we would like to have another raise in 2024, which we are going to discuss with social partners, the head of the Romanian Executive, Marcel Ciolacu has said. The Romanian official has also insisted that no minimum wages are to decrease in Romania upon the enforcement of the new fiscal-budgetary law package for which the government has assumed responsibility before Parliament. For this reason the Executive decided to scrap the draft ordinance on raising the minimum salaries in the construction sector as these salaries would have decreased upon the introduction of the health insurance contributions. As a result, employees in constructions, agriculture and food industry will have their salaries unchanged as they dont have to pay health contributions.

Marcel Ciolacu:” According to the calculations the Finance Ministry presented on Thursday, upon the introduction of health insurance contributions for all employees, the minimum net salary in constructions, agriculture and food industry could have dropped. We have all, and especially I, pledged that such a thing is not going to happen as this is something I do not agree with. No minimum net pay was supposed to be trimmed, so we decided to cancel this ordinance to prevent this from happening. The field ministries are to revise the text and until then all the wages in the aforementioned fields, constructions, agriculture and food industry will remain unchanged as the employees there are exempted from paying health insurance contributions.”

The government initially wanted to raise the minimum gross wages in constructions from 4,000 to 4,500 lei, the equivalent of roughly 900 euros, but the National Trade Union Block proposed that the gross wages in constructions be raised to 46 hundred lei and in agriculture to 35 hundred lei. The new form of the aforementioned ordinance might be high on the agenda of the new round of talks the government is going to have next week. Time enough for the Finance Ministry to recalculate the money involved.

(bill)

29 September 2023
June 8, 2023 UPDATE

STRIKE Trade unions in Romania’s education system have
planned another protest rally on Friday amid dissatisfaction with the
government’s response to their claims. In the meantime, the Executive on
Thursday endorsed a memorandum regarding the pay rises granted to the personnel
in the country’s education system under the new pay law. In this way the
Executive is guaranteeing this domain will be a top priority. Romania’s Liberal
Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuca has given assurances the salary of a beginner
teacher will be based on the average medium salary, as the protesters requested.
The memorandum also refers to a holiday bonus according to the teachers’ salaries,
as well as to other bonuses. In another development, field minister Ligia Deca
has announced that applications for the Baccalaureate and the national
assessment exams for 8th graders will be extended until June 13 and
the competency tests from the Baccalaureate exam will take place over 14 – 23 June.

FUND The EU Modernization Fund made
available 2.4 billion Euros for 31 projects in seven beneficiary countries,
including Romania, in order to help them streamline their energy systems, cut
greenhouse gas emissions in energy, industry and transport as well as to
improve energy efficiency, the European Commission announced on Thursday. This has
been the highest sum made available so far and will give an impetus to Europe’s
ecological transition According to the European Commission, these investments
are helping the member states to reduce their dependency on fossil fuel from
Russia, meet their climate and energy objectives for 2030 and contribute to the
EU’s long-term commitment to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Additional
investment has been made in Romania, 1.1 billion euros, the Czech Republic 1
billion euros as well as in countries like Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, Latvia
and Lithuania. The sums made available on Thursday, have brought the total
payment from the aforementioned fund to roughly 7.5 billion euros, benefitting
10 eligible member countries.

GROWTH Romania reported an economic growth
rate of 2.3% in the first quarter of this year, compared to the similar period
of 2022, according to provisional data published today by the National
Institute of Statistics. Thus, the estimated Gross Domestic Product was over
312 billion lei (about 62 billion Euros). Among others, wholesale and retail
trade, motor vehicle and motorcycle repair, transport and storage, as well as
constructions contributed to the increase in the GDP. The World Bank estimates
that Romania’s Gross Domestic Product will register, this year, a growth of
2.6%. The IMF has revised significantly downward the estimates regarding the
growth of the Romanian economy in 2023, from 3.1 to 2.4%.

DEFENCE The Commander of the U.S. European
Command, General Christopher G. Cavoli, and the Romanian Chief of Defense
Staff, General Daniel Petrescu, are the hosts of the Central European Chiefs of
Defense Conference, on Thursday and Friday, in Bucharest. The chiefs of defense
from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and
Hungary are participating in the meeting. Nine military leaders of the US
National Guard are also present, the Romanian Defense Ministry reports. The
event includes topics on security challenges and aims to intensify military
cooperation relations to ensure stability in the region.

(bill&LS)

8 June 2023
May 25, 2023

DAY The Ministry of National Defence is
today staging a series of military and religious services devoted to the Heroes
Day celebrated every year on the Ascension Day in Romania. Romanian President
Klaus Iohannis together with the country’s Minister of Defence, Angel Tîvăr are going to attend a series
of ceremonies at the Heroes’ Monument near Sibiu, in central Romania, and the
president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, is expected to give a
speech during the ceremony at the Heroes Graveyard in Buzau, southern Romania.
The Heroes Day will also be celebrated by Romania’s Prime Minister Nicolae
Ciuca at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in the Carol 1st Park
in Bucharest. The Heroes Day was first observed on May 4th 1920 and
was taken over by the Romanian Parliament in 1995. It became a national day of
the Romanian people in 2003.

STRIKE Romanian teachers are carrying
on their all-out strike, after trade unions in education have turned down the
latest government offer, which they deem as insulting. Several thousand
teachers are protesting in front of the government building in Bucharest. Representatives
of the government and trade union leaders last night attended a new round of
talks which ended in a deadlock. The authorities ruled out any pay rises and bonuses
claimed by the trade unions. However, teachers were supposed to get 25 hundred
lei in two installments this year and the non-teaching staffers 1000 lei.
Marian Neacsu, the government’s Secretary General, explained the money would be
given on a special card for professional career and gave assurances that the
field of education would be a top priority in the future process of drafting
the payment law. Disgruntled with the pay and their working conditions, employees
of Romania’s education system kicked off an all-out strike on May 22. Trade
union leaders have announced their intention not to give up the protest unless
their claims are met.

EU The European Commission
Executive Vice-president, Valdis Dombrovskis on Wednesday called on the member
states to apply more effectively their plans of recovery and resilience, to
make investment and cut on spending. The European Commission has again drawn
attention to the economic situation in Romania, the only EU country for which
the procedure for excessive deficit has been activated. According to Brussels,
Romania spends more money than it has and must cut its deficit under 3% by the
next year. According to the government in Bucharest, the budget deficit is
expected to go down under 4.4% of the GDP this year and 2.9% next year. We have
more on the issue after the news.

CUP Sepsi OSK Sfantu Gheorghe won
Romania’s football cup after a 5-4 win against Universitatea Cluj in the
shootouts on Wednesday. 120 minutes into the game, the score was nil-all. The
hero of Sepsi was its goalkeeper, Roland Niczuly, a former player of the
Universitatea Cluj’s. Niczuly managed to save three shots, after Universitatea had got
the upper hand but wasted two chances. Sepsi has won the trophy for the second
time in a row. We recall that this ambitious football side from central Romania,
lost the finals of the aforementioned competition in 2020. Universitatea has
lost a Romanian Cup finals for the fifth time.

VISIT ‘A genuine war is going on in Europe at present’ the
president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Franz Walter Steinmeier said on
Thursday during the visit he is paying to Romania. The German official has
reiterated his appeal to unity in this context. During the second day of his
state visit jointly with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis he met
representatives of the German community in Romania. The two officials are going
to visit the National College ‘Samuel von Brukenthal’ in Sibiu with tuition in
German, a school first documented 650 years ago. The two presidents will be
attending a formal lunch offered by the incumbent mayor of Sibiu, Astrid Fodor.
The last stage of the German president’s visit in the region is going to be the
Saxon fortified church in the village of Cristian, a monument dating back to
the 13th century. Steinmeier will next visit the city of Timisoara,
in western Romania to lay a wreath of flowers at the monument dedicated to the
anti-communist revolution of 1989 in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral.

(bill)

25 May 2023
Education Employees protest in Iasi

The city of Iasi in northeastern Romania on Thursday saw the first episode in a series of protests put up by trade unionists from the countrys preuniversity education. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets and picketed for an hour the Prefects office to protest the small salaries of both the teaching and non-teaching staffers in Romanias education system.

According to organizers, that was the first protest in a nationwide series against the current level of salaries in this field of activity, which they described as gruesome. All the categories of employees in this sector from teachers to auxiliary personnel and even managers have been affected by the authorities failure to raise payment in education.

According to trade unionists the latest series of talks they held with government representatives has led to no significant results and authorities failed to implement the 25% rise, which was supposed to offset the present inflation rate.

Protesters have also denounced the authorities refusal to pay for the extra-hours worked as well as to grant the bonuses negotiated. Here is trade union leader Laviniu Lăcustă, with more on the aforementioned protest:

Laviniu Lacusta: “Unfortunately government officials failed to implement the things they promised during the talks we held with them in December, January or February. And if they continue to do so, we are very determined to have an all-out strike in May.”

In an interview to Radio Romania, Education Minister, Ligia Deca, says that the protesters are disgruntled with the present legislation. She pledges that the authorities are presently working on a new legislation that will include new provisions on the progressive payment starting from the average medium salary, a thing agreed upon with the trade unions.

Ligia Deca: “The protests announced arent against the new package of laws we are presently working on. They are against the salary scale under the present salary law. This is another discussion. The measure included in the new legislation, namely that the salary scale has the medium wages as a starting point has been welcomed by the trade unions, which have cooperated with Education Ministry experts in this respect. They presented the Labour Ministry with a new payment scheme based on this value so that people may feel motivated to embrace a career in education.”

But since government pledges can in no way compensate for the employees lack of money, we expect that protest actions like the one in Iasi to be seen all over the country, including in its capital city, Bucharest.

(bill)

3 March 2023
April 16, 2022 UPDATE

DAY
Roman-Catholics and protestant believers are this Sunday celebrating Easter, whereas
the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic believers are celebrating Palm Sunday. Orthodox
believers on Saturday attended various religious processions dedicated to Jesus
Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which also marks the beginning of the last
week of Lent, also known as the Passion Week, before Easter, which they
celebrate on April 24th. Saturday was also the first day of Jewish
Holiday of Passover, which celebrates the exodus of the Israelites from slavery
in Egypt.

RATING The trust signal conveyed by the Romanian government to foreign
investors was also confirmed by the rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and
Fitch, the Executive in Bucharest announced on Saturday. Growth prospects are
underpinned by the unprecedented volume of national and EU funds, which are to
be pumped into the main areas of the Romanian economy, such as industry,
agriculture, energy, environment, digitization and also by the government
development policies, the Executive went on to say. Romania’s Finance Minister Adrian
Câciu hailed a recent decision by the financial rating agency Standard &
Poor’s to reconfirm Romania’s Sovereign credit rating to ‘BBB minus’ with
stable outlook. ‘This is another proof that the national policies of funding
the economy were right’ Câciu says. According to Standard & Poor’s, Romania’s
rating is underpinned by EU membership and international capital flows. At the
same time the risks posed by the war in Ukraine are diminished by the prospects
of absorbing a major volume of EU funds as well as by the low energy dependence
on imports of natural gas and oil from Russia. However, the agency has significantly
dropped the country’s growth estimates down to 2.1% and has increased estimates
regarding the inflation rate, which in 2022 is expected to go up to 9% as
compared to 6% forecast in December. Another major rating agency Fitch last
week confirmed Romania’s rating at ‘BBB minus’, with negative outlook, the last
notch in the investment-grade category.

BNR Romania’s
Central Bank (BNR) expects the country’s inflation rate to increase in the
following months against the intitial forecasts. So, Romania’s inflation rate is
going to exceed the level of 11.2% forecast in June. The phenomenon was caused
by the latest price hikes in fuel and processed food against the war in Ukraine
and the international sanctions imposed on Russia. In another development,
although pressure for pay rises might be felt, at least in the sectors facing a
shortage of qualified personnel, substantial pay rises are very unlikely to
happen in the near future. We recall the annual inflation rate went up to
10.15% in March from 8.5% in February reaching the highest level in the past 18
years.

INVICTUS A team made up of 20
servicemen of the Romanian army, who got wounded in various operation theatres
around the world are for a week participating in the Invictus Games underway
this year in the Hague. They are competing in six sporting events, such as
archery, athletics, rowing, powerlifting, cycling, swimming and sitting
volleyball. According to the Defence Ministry in Bucharest, these games are
designed to promote the respect and empathy for the sacrifice and trauma
suffered by the wounded soldiers whose involvement in these activities is an
opportunity for social re-integration and regaining self-confidence. This has
been the Romanians’ third participation in the Invictus Games after those in
Toronto, in 2017 and Sydney, a year later. The opening ceremonies in the Hague
have also been attended by Romania’s Defence Minister Vasile Dincu.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Irina Bara on Friday qualified for the
semifinals of the ITF tournament in Palm Harbor, Florida after a 6-3, 6-4 win
against Grace Min of the USA. Bara has also qualified for the doubles finals
together with Italian Lucrezia Stefanini after a 6-3, 6-1 win against Kayla Day
and Ellie Douglas of the USA.

(bill)

16 April 2022
Trade union protests

Inadequate salaries prompted the employees of the Mechanical Plant and Arms Plant in Cugir, central Romania, to take to the streets late last week. The protest continued this week as well, when over 700 people marched the streets of the town between the 2 industrial units.

They demand better working standards and an increase in salaries, which they say barely cover their heating and electricity bills. They argue they have not had a pay raise in 2 years. “(We are) Overworked and underpaid,” a female employee says, adding that after 40 years of work, in February she was only paid nearly 320 euro.

“We will not give in,” and “Unity” were the protesters main slogans. They say they will not give up until their main demand, a 30% pay raise, is fulfilled.

The Board of Directors of the Cugir Mechanical Plant convened on Monday and offered a 6.5% salary increase. The trade union leader Virgil Matei said people were not happy with the offer.

The Cugir Mechanical Plant produces various types of weapons, 9mm automatic and semi-automatic pistols and accessories. The unit was set up in 1799, when the region was part of the Habsburg Empire, and was called the Steel and Iron Works. In 2004, the company split into the Cugir Mechanical Plant and the Arms Plant.

The latter produces semi-automatic rifles, intended for hunting and shooting sports, for the civilian market, in particular in the US. In the military segment, the units produce AKMs for foreign markets.

Trade unions in the steel industry have also gone on protest. The employees of ALRO Slatina (south) and ALUM Tulcea (south-east), 2 companies running on mostly Russian capital, picketed the government headquarters.

The workers want a one-year cap on natural gas and energy prices, at the level reported for December 2020, as well as financial assistance for the companies that benefitted from state aid in the past.

According to sources in the trade union, the slow-down in operations at ALRO Slatina has already triggered negative effects, leading to over 12,000 employees idled in various other industries.

The leader of the “Aluministulˮ Union, Constantin Popescu, explained that ALRO Slatina has closed down two electrolysis units, with a 3rd one also preparing for shutdown, which is why nearly 500 people were made redundant.

A total of 40,000 jobs in various related industries are jeopardised if ALRO Slatina downsizes operations, the union leader also said, and warned that the last 2 remaining units risk being closed down. According to Constantin Popescu, the government should help ALRO purchase energy at fair prices. (A.M.P.)

16 February 2022
Trade union protests

Inadequate salaries prompted the employees of the Mechanical Plant and Arms Plant in Cugir, central Romania, to take to the streets late last week. The protest continued this week as well, when over 700 people marched the streets of the town between the 2 industrial units.

They demand better working standards and an increase in salaries, which they say barely cover their heating and electricity bills. They argue they have not had a pay raise in 2 years. “(We are) Overworked and underpaid,” a female employee says, adding that after 40 years of work, in February she was only paid nearly 320 euro.

“We will not give in,” and “Unity” were the protesters main slogans. They say they will not give up until their main demand, a 30% pay raise, is fulfilled.

The Board of Directors of the Cugir Mechanical Plant convened on Monday and offered a 6.5% salary increase. The trade union leader Virgil Matei said people were not happy with the offer.

The Cugir Mechanical Plant produces various types of weapons, 9mm automatic and semi-automatic pistols and accessories. The unit was set up in 1799, when the region was part of the Habsburg Empire, and was called the Steel and Iron Works. In 2004, the company split into the Cugir Mechanical Plant and the Arms Plant.

The latter produces semi-automatic rifles, intended for hunting and shooting sports, for the civilian market, in particular in the US. In the military segment, the units produce AKMs for foreign markets.

Trade unions in the steel industry have also gone on protest. The employees of ALRO Slatina (south) and ALUM Tulcea (south-east), 2 companies running on mostly Russian capital, picketed the government headquarters.

The workers want a one-year cap on natural gas and energy prices, at the level reported for December 2020, as well as financial assistance for the companies that benefitted from state aid in the past.

According to sources in the trade union, the slow-down in operations at ALRO Slatina has already triggered negative effects, leading to over 12,000 employees idled in various other industries.

The leader of the “Aluministulˮ Union, Constantin Popescu, explained that ALRO Slatina has closed down two electrolysis units, with a 3rd one also preparing for shutdown, which is why nearly 500 people were made redundant.

A total of 40,000 jobs in various related industries are jeopardised if ALRO Slatina downsizes operations, the union leader also said, and warned that the last 2 remaining units risk being closed down. According to Constantin Popescu, the government should help ALRO purchase energy at fair prices. (A.M.P.)

16 February 2022
Changes in labour legislation

The government of Romania has passed a memorandum laying down the principles for revising and updating the legislative framework concerning the salaries of public sector staff.

Ministries have 30 days to submit proposals regarding salary policies in the public system. The government plans to draw up a new law on public sector salaries within a year, and to submit it to Parliament.

The memorandum, signed by all ministries, is a reflection of their commitment to presenting their own view of the occupational fields they coordinate, the labour minister Raluca Turcan said. She also made it clear that the document will not pave the way for pay cuts, but on the contrary, that the goal is to increase those salaries that have always been overlooked because of inequities in previous regulations.

“Once the salary system becomes fair and public institutions become efficient in relation to citizens, the competition with the private sector will be stronger, the quality of work will improve both in the public and in the private system, and we will see better salaries both in the public and in the private sector, the labour minister added.

Raluca Turcan also explained that the pay grade structure will be reanalysed for each occupational group, and some bonuses will be included in the core salary. Also, the bonuses that can be made flat-sum will be paid as a fix amount, while the remaining ones will not exceed 20% of the individual base salary. Base salaries should be the same for everybody, Raluca Turcan believes, because, she argues, it is unacceptable for some public sector staff to be paid according to the 2019 salary level, and others to a level only possible in 2022.

Meanwhile, the government endorsed emergency orders that simplify working relations by digitisation and by cutting red-tape.

One of these orders regulates the use of advanced or qualified electronic signatures, accompanied by time stamps, in signing employment contracts, in the relations between businessses and public institutions, and enables employers to purchase electronic signatures for their employees. The same order, the labour minister also explained, is designed to streamline teleworking, given that at present around 400,000 employment contracts include telework clauses, as opposed to only 50,000 last year.

Another emergency order targets nearly 445,000 micro-enterprises in Romania, which have a maximum of 9 employees. These businesses are now no longer bound to draw up job descriptions and company regulations or to keep attendance registers, and thus the workload of business owners is reduced. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

16 April 2021