Radio România Internațional

Tag: pay rises

  • Romania gripped by shortage of physicians

    Romania gripped by shortage of physicians

    Romania faces a shortage of thousands of physicians, medical residents and nurses, the Health Ministry says. Over 8,600 vacancies are reported in state hospitals for physicians alone. Large cities, including Bucharest, are equally struggling, although the most severe shortages are reported in rural areas – over 300 villages lack a family physician, while over half of settlements don’t have enough healthcare professionals. In certain villages, shortages were partly solved by bringing in physicians from retirement or by setting up auxiliary care units employing medical professionals tenured elsewhere. As regards medical residents, Health Ministry data points to some 1,600 vacancies. The biggest deficit is reported in the nursing sector, with over 14,500 vacancies at national level, regardless of training. Most of these are reported in hospitals, while the rest in emergency services and wards.

     

     

    How did it come to this, considering salaries in the health sector have increased significantly, by some 80% starting 2018? Despite the pay rise, physicians continue to leave the country seeking more appealing work conditions. In 2023, over 800 physicians applied for the Healthcare Professional Certificate in order to seek employment abroad. In the last year, medical staff shortages have worsened. In May 2023, the Government froze vacancy-filling contests to cut public spending, requiring each specific sector to submit memoranda for all new hires. Following certain protest actions, the Government early this year decided to open to public contest 7,600 vacancies in the health and social welfare sector. However, the procedure typically takes two months, from the moment the announcement is made public to the start of the employment contract.

     

     

    Due to the shortage of physicians and nurses, current employees are overworked, while patients often don’t get the proper care they deserve, hospital managers say. The phenomenon is all the more worrisome as employees are often recalled from paid leave to ensure regular shifts. A Romanian Court of Auditors report examining the human resources management and health infrastructure development over 2014-2021 shows that Romania ranks second to last at EU level in terms of physicians employed nationwide, with a little over 300 physicians per 100 thousand inhabitants. (VP)

  • More money for the local elected officials

    More money for the local elected officials

    The salaries of local elected officials in Romania are increasing. On Tuesday, the Chamber of Deputies, as a decision-making body, adopted the draft law providing for salary increases for mayors, vice-mayors, presidents and vice-presidents of county councils. The other dignitaries were excluded from the categories targeted by this measure, initially adopted by the Senate, as the first Parliament Chamber notified. The decision caused heated discussions between the power and opposition camps. During the debates, the National Liberal Party – PNL, the Social Democratic Party – PSD and Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania – UDMR (in the governing coalition), as well as the representatives of the minorities, argued that the local elected officials should benefit from higher salaries so as not to be discriminated against. Liberal deputy Florin Roman said that justice is needed for mayors. He stated that, through the introduced amendments, a discriminatory measure ‘that says that all public sector employees, from 2018 to 2022, must reach an equal salary level is thus fixed.



    Also from the governing coalition, the Social Democrat Alfred Simonis argued that the local elected officials must benefit from increased salaries, so that the local public administrations should be efficient. The increase in the salaries of local elected officials mars the image of the authorities, but it is necessary in certain cases, the mayor of the city of Iaşi (north-east), the Liberal Mihai Chirica, said in his turn, adding that for the measure to be applied, the necessary funds should be provided to the budgets. I know the situation of the mayors in the county and not only in the county, some of them are really in critical situations, maybe not the poorest, but not in a position to dedicate, with all their heart, the energy they have in the service of the community, said Mihai Chirica. He pointed out that the salaries of the mayors and other local elected officials are also paid from the local budgets, and this law will find a solution, ‘only if budgets are also available to supply the financing sources, as for any other provision regarding increases in expenses’.



    From the opposition, Save Romania Union – USR has criticized the decision to increase the salaries of local elected officials and announced that it will challenge the law at the Constitutional Court. The USR MPs have drawn attention to the fact that these increases will be a burden on the shoulders of the private sector, which, in their opinion, should benefit, these days, from support measures provided by the authorities. The mayor of Bacău, USR representative, Lucian Stanciu Viziteu, believes that, in the current context, other decisions would have been needed to support the local administration. ‘I think that the most important thing for the local elected officials is the access to funds for investments and not for their own salaries, which have increased year by year, according to the Administrative Code and the unitary pay law, said Lucian Stanciu Viziteu. Also from the opposition, the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians – AUR, George Simion, criticized Tuesday’s vote in the Chamber of Deputies. He stated that the adopted law favors the elite of public sector employees, warning that rifts will be created in society. (LS)

  • New pay rises expected soon

    New pay rises expected soon

    Several categories of public sector employees whose salaries have not been increased in a long time will get more money soon, according to a draft law passed by the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. The document stipulates, among other things, pay rises for the staff of university libraries, the Agriculture and Culture ministries, for a part of the healthcare employees, military staff in service and civilian staff working with the Defense Ministry. Labor Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu gives us more details:



    “The military staff will see a 15% increase in salaries, just like the staff of university libraries. Also, the state secretariat for revolutionaries will get 20% more, just like the staff of the institutions subordinated to the Agriculture Ministry, researchers with institutions subordinated to the Academy of Forestry and Agriculture, the sports clubs’ and student’s houses employees and expert doctors. Starting January 1, 2018 we will take into account the increases operated this year until the month of December. “



    The Liberal MPs voted in favor of the project while the National Liberal Party’s interim president, Raluca Turcan, has pointed out that all pay rises adopted were amendments made by the Liberals, included initially in the unified pay bill recently adopted by Parliament. Raluca Turcan:



    “Where is honesty? Where is responsibility? Can we even mention them if the high-ranking officials’ salaries go up while teachers and doctors are deceived?”



    On the other hand, the labor minister has said that the draft law provides for pay rises for the categories of public sector employees that have not seen any increases this year and has dismissed the accusation that it’s only high-ranking officials that get more money. Last week, Lia Olguta Vasilescu announced that the pay rises for all public sector employees would no longer be applied as of July 1, as scheduled, but as of January 1, 2018. Statistics show that the salaries of Romanian employees have gone up by an average 13.4% this year, to around 520 euros in the month of April. According to the National Statistics Institute, the most important pay rise was applied to the doctors’ salaries, which went up by 36%. Employees in the IT sector top the list of best-paid employees. The insufficient staff, the increase in the minimum salary and the pay rises in the public sector are the main factors that triggered a significant increase in the salaries of Romanian employees. (Translated by E. Enache)

  • The state budget and salary increases

    The state budget and salary increases

    Finance Minister Viorel Stefan on Monday addressed a Chamber of Deputies plenary session, at the request of the National Liberal Party, in opposition. The Liberals wanted to see if the Social-Democratic Party can live up to the promises made in the election campaign, which included salary increases.



    The Liberals say state budget revenues for the first quarter are lower than the level reported in the corresponding period of last year, and below what the 2017 budget law had predicted. The National Liberal Party even called on Minister Stefan to step down, listing as the main reasons the Governments decision to cut public investment and the low rate of tax collection. Here is Liberal MP Bogdan Hutuca:



    Bogdan Hutuca: “Its been only three months since the Government took office, and the Romanian economy already finds itself against the wall, without the Government even beginning to honour its promises to society. And its not just the budget revenues that took a heavy blow. Expenses too are off the charts. As a result of poor budget policies in the first three months of the year, we now find ourselves in a terrible spot, where three categories of spending, personnel, procurement and social assistance, account for 85,31% of total expenditure.



    In turn, the interim Liberal president Raluca Turcan says revenues for January and February account for half the original estimate for the first three months of the year, making it impossible for the Government to cover its spending in March.



    Finance Minister Viorel Stefan has dismissed the Liberals point of view, arguing that the financial results for early 2017 are in line with the Governments economic growth target of 5,2%. Over 44,000 new jobs have been made available, and public confidence in the economy has also gone up, Viorel Stefan also says.



    Viorel Stefan: “The budget estimates for the first quarter of 2017 indicate a surplus of 0.2% of GDP in the consolidated budget. At the same time, positive results have been reported in terms of revenues from income taxes and social security contributions, as a result of the spike in public sector salaries, of a good VAT and excise collection rate in March, as well as of a 4.5% cut in procurement expenses as compared to the same period last year.



    Minister Viorel Stefan went on to say he is waiting for the budget execution figures for the first quarter, before estimating the impact of the unified pay scale law on the budget.



    Viorel Stefan: “Regarding the budgets capacity to absorb this impact, it is too early for me to tell. Im waiting for the figures for the first quarter to come out, so I may have a clearer image of the share of salary expenses the total salary fund will manage to cover in the second half of this year, and what the next budget periods will have to absorb.



    The unified pay scale law for public sector employees is due to come into force on July 1, after being debated and voted by Parliament.

  • About hospitals and doctors

    About hospitals and doctors

    Enjoying high professional standards but discontented with their pay level and working conditions, an increasing number of physicians choose to leave Romania. Figures are increasingly worrying because, since 2007, the year of Romanias EU accession, over 43 thousand experts have asked for documents allowing them to do their jobs abroad, after the Romanian state spent more than 3 and a half billion lei for their training. And doctors exodus seems to never end. While in one year 3,000 physicians enter the system, 3,500 submit their documents to leave and work abroad. Consequently, Romania has been left with only half of the physicians it needs. The figures have been presented by Minister Vlad Voiculescu, who announced a strategy that should motivate doctors to stay in Romania. The plan includes measures for the next 4 years.



    “Hospitals are faced with a major deficit of medical staff and entire towns and villages do not have a family doctor. Motivating the medical staff to stay in Romania is also related to applying salary policies based on professionalism and results, to granting various benefits for doing their job in isolated areas and also to granting financial incentives.



    Minister Vlad Voiculescu has said steps have already been taken to give higher salaries to healthcare staff, hospital managers are now being assessed according to improved criteria and contests are more transparent, as all vacancies are published online, on the governments website. The plan, drafted by the Health Ministry with the support of the Presidential Administration and of the World Health Organization, provides for the introduction of measures meant to bring proper salaries to the medical staff, good working conditions and opportunities for professional development.



    The project related to the building of three regional hospitals, a new medical residency law, more transparency in organizing and giving access to contests in the healthcare system alongside pay rises are some of the provisions of the healthcare strategy. On the very day when the strategy was launched the Romanian Government signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank worth 1 and a half million euros. The money will be used for hiring experts that are supposed to draft all the documents necessary for funding and building three regional hospitals in Iasi, Cluj-Napoca and Craiova. These three hospitals are part of a network of 8 regional hospitals included in Romanias Healthcare Strategy and in the Regional Operational Programme for the period 2014-2020.


    (Translated by L. Simion)