Radio România Internațional

Tag: public sector employees

  • Public sector trade unions voice grievances

    Public sector trade unions voice grievances

    The Labor Ministry in Bucharest has submitted to public debate a draft law that provides for a 10% increase in the salaries of certain public sector workers this year in two installments, June and September respectively. According to the bill, employees of cultural institutions and the Trade Registry, diplomats, defense workers, as well as those from city halls and institutions on the payroll of the Government and Parliament, are to receive higher salaries. The staff of county agencies for environmental protection and the agency for environmental protection of the municipality of Bucharest are also expected to benefit from increases. The impact on the state budget is estimated at over 200 mln EUR, an amount that should be obtained through restructuring and the reduction of spending on goods and services. For the first time, the head of the PSD-PNL coalition Cabinet, Social-Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu, said the Government cannot afford to grant a bigger increase, in line with an analysis conducted by the Finance Ministry. A 10% salary increase is also expected to be granted to museum employees or those in the government’s structures. The latter reacted negatively to the government’s proposal, in addition to employees of the environmental agencies.

     

     

    Environmental workers from Bacău (east) and Mehedinţi (southwest) counties protested for several hours on Wednesday, calling for the alignment of salaries in the territory with those in the center, as well as a 20% pay rise. Protesters accused the government of promoting a discriminatory salary policy that does not take into account their real needs. Unless inequities are eliminated, more radical forms of protest will follow, including suspending the issuance of permits for large projects, such as those involving national or European funds, environmental workers have warned. Employees of the Caraş-Severin County National Archives Service (southwest) also organized a spontaneous protest at the start of the week, criticizing the salary inequities between county and central services. The protest consisted in the termination of the activity and the suspension of public services. Although a process was initiated in January to standardize salaries in several public sectors, the employees of the National Archives were overlooked, one employee says. The Government faces additional pressure from certain categories of public sector employees who consider themselves wronged in comparison to other public sector workers, most of whose salary demands were met by the government, and it also has to deal with a sizable budget deficit. All that amidst an election whirlpool this year in Romania, which starts on June 9 with the local and European Parliament elections, continues in September with the presidential election and ends in December with the parliamentary election. (VP)

     

  • 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.)





  • Economic and social initiatives

    Economic and social initiatives

    The Senate in Bucharest on Wednesday voted a draft law spearheaded by the
    Social-Democratic Party in opposition, providing survivor’s benefits to the
    children or spouses of medical professionals who die in the fight against the
    coronavirus. The Social-Democrats want the survivors of medical staff who treat
    the COVID-19 sick and who die from infections to get a benefit tantamount to
    75% of the salary of the deceased. Social-Democrat Senator Florin Ortan:


    The nation is
    fighting a biological war against an unseen, deadly enemy. We are confident we
    will win this war. We won’t win every fight, however. We have seen multiple
    organizational and medical flaws in Suceava, Deva or Arad. Our hope is that
    this initiative will have zero beneficiaries.


    At the same
    time, the leader of the group of Liberals in Parliament, Daniel Fenechiu, says
    the Liberals are grateful to the medical staff who fight the coronavirus and
    who deserve our full gratitude for their efforts.


    Doctors deserve
    all the credit for their efforts in the first line. No effort is too small to motivate
    our doctors today and to show them society’s full support for what they do, for
    their vocation, for their importance.


    The Save Romania
    Union does not see the measure as a privilege, but rather as a minimum right
    medical professionals should have. In turn, the Democratic Union of Ethnic
    Hungarians in Romania says the measure might alleviate the suffering of
    families of the departed. A final vote on this matter will be cast in the
    Chamber of Deputies. In another development, another measure to fight the
    COVID-19 pandemic is to send some categories of public employees in technical
    unemployment, on a rotation basis, for periods of 15 days. The measure
    addresses everyone working in public institutions that are non-essential in the
    fight against the pandemic. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban explains:


    We’ve thought
    of a mechanism that we might introduce as a rule, which might lower the risk of
    the virus spreading. It’s rather simple: we divide employees in two groups,
    each being able to perform their assigned duties. Half will be working 15 days,
    with the other half getting technical unemployment benefits for 15 days. At the
    end of 15 days the two groups will switch roles. The mechanism must ensure the
    functionality of public institutions, in those areas that are not directly
    affected by the measures we introduce.


    The draft law on
    technical unemployment in public institutions has also been announced by Labor
    Minister Violeta Alexandru on a social networking site. The Labor Minister said
    consultations will be held on this matter, including with local authorities,
    and the Government will take full responsibility for this decision.


    (Translated by V.Palcu)

  • Holiday vouchers for public sector employees

    Holiday vouchers for public sector employees

    The Bucharest Senate has passed a Government’s emergency decree on granting holiday vouchers to public sector employees, that will cost the state budget around 384 million euros. It is the Chamber of Deputies that will have the final say on this law, following debates. Under the new law, until November 30, 2018 each public sector employee should receive a holiday voucher worth around 322 euros. The decree has been criticized by the Liberal opposition in the Senate, who voted against the document. Liberal senator Florin Catu has explained:



    “Employees working in the public sector who, on average, have bigger salaries than the private sector employees will receive, through this government decree, holiday vouchers. Who will cover the costs? The private sector. In my opinion, even more serious is the fact that we talk about holiday vouchers in a year when, through a budget revision, we slashed 10.6 billion lei from the budget earmarked for investment.”



    On the other hand, the Social Democrat Senator Lavinia Craioveanu says that the measure is stipulated in his party’s governing programme:



    “The fact that many Romanians will have the opportunity to spend a holiday in the mountains, at the seaside or anywhere else, something they may not have afforded otherwise, is a measure that will obviously boost tourism in Romania.”



    The electronic holiday vouchers can only be used to purchase tourist services in affiliated units and are not transferable. Also, they cannot be sold and their nominal value cannot be diminished. Moreover, travel agencies are not allowed to sell these vouchers for holiday packages for a price higher than similar holiday packages purchased through different payment methods. The National Association of Travel Agencies in Romania (ANAT) has recently announced that the value of holiday packages paid for with holiday vouchers is below expectations, accounting for only 10.3 million euros until the end of July, given that this year such vouchers have only been granted in the private sector.



    ANAT is expecting the 1.2 million people working in the public sector to also be granted holiday vouchers this year, a move likely to increase the tourist market from 10 million euros in 2016 to 380 million euros this year. However, travel agencies have confirmed that granting holiday vouchers in the private system alone, has boosted tourism in Romania. (Translated by E. Enache)

  • Unified Pay Scale, under Debate

    Unified Pay Scale, under Debate

    The new law on the unified pay scale for the public sector will be a parliamentary initiative endorsed by all the partners in the ruling coalition, the Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu announced. He added that the bill will most likely be discussed and voted on by Parliament this week. The Prime Minister also said he wanted a fair law, enabling all employees to get paid in relation to their responsibilities. Sorin Grindeanu:



    “This is an extremely important bill for us, and a measure that all Romanians have long been waiting for. It will be a parliamentary initiative of all the Senators and Deputies in the ruling coalition.”



    On the other hand, the interim leader of the National Liberal Party in opposition, Raluca Turcan, says the Cabinet should ask for a vote of confidence on this bill.



    “It would be a good idea for this Cabinet to send the clearest possible message and say, yes, we have the money for around 7 billion euros worth of pay rises. I would like the Parliament of Romania to discuss this issue in as serious and principled manner as possible, so that the people should know whether the budget allows for this pay rise.”



    Turcan argues that Romania’s economic state is not the best, and that the business environment is under unprecedented pressure at present. In her opinion, Romania needs predictability, in order for its business environment to be strengthened and to be able to consolidate the budget, through revenues generated in due time.



    In turn, Finance Minister Viorel Stefan added that he was first waiting to see the budget execution figures for the first quarter, so as to assess the impact of salary rises when the unified pay scale law takes effect. He explained that this is a very important law, and it should be immediately enacted, in order to ensure the stability of the Romanian public sector pay scale. The Finance Minister explained that the bill must be discussed by Parliament, because so far only government decrees have been passed in this respect, which has generated confusions with respect to salaries in the public sector.



    The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, announced that the new bill will be signed on Thursday, in the central Romanian town of Sinaia, by the leaders of the ruling coalition and MPs. According to him, under the new law the ratio between the lowest and the highest salary in Romania will drop from 1 to 15 at present to 1 to 12. The highest paid will be the head of state, followed by the speakers of the two Chambers of Parliament, and the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.



    The Labour Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu has recently said, after negotiations with trade unions in the public sector regarding the new bill, that salaries in the public sector will be raised gradually until 2021, and that the only category to benefit from full pay rises in 2018 will be the public healthcare staff. The authorities want the new law to come into force on July 1. (Translated by A.M. Popescu)

  • The Week in review, June 6-12

    The Week in review, June 6-12

    Romanian politics after local elections


    With the result of last week’s local election validated, the victors are ready to get to work. Expectations are very high. The leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD) got 34.83% of the mayor seats throughout the country. Next came the National Liberal party (PNL), with 31.49%. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) only got 5.73%. The same top three positions have also been maintained in the race for local and county councils. The Social Democrats also won the position of Bucharest mayor and all six district mayor positions. This is also the first time when a woman, Gabriela Firea, runs the capital city Bucharest.



    Gabriela Firea: “I’m a person who relies on dialogue and that will not change in the future. I’m also not the type of person to hold grudges so I’ll be able to communicate very well with all general councillors, irrespective of the party they represent, because it’s in the best interest of the people of Bucharest. I can assure you I’ll only come up with projects that are in the best interest of the Bucharest locals, and not with controversial projects. If we have doubts about something, then we’ll ask for the people’s opinion, we will consult with the Bucharesters.”



    The surprise of this year’s local election was mathematician Nicusor Dan, the leader of Save Bucharest Union, who came out second in the competition for Bucharest mayor. After elections Nicusor Dan has announced his party will be renamed, with a view to the parliamentary elections this fall, into Save Romania Union.




    Salary increase for public sector employees


    More than 650,000 public sector employees will see their salaries rise starting in September, under a government emergency order on salary standards in the public sector passed this week. The ordinance was needed in order to bridge the pay gap between employees holding the same position and having the same qualifications but different salaries.



    Healthcare employees will see the biggest rises, labour minister Dragos Paslaru explained: “There are major dysfunctions in the healthcare sector as far as salaries are concerned. We had to rethink the salary scheme to make sure that doctors with the same position and seniority have the same basic salaries, regardless of where they work across the country. We’re also working on a similar payment scheme for the education sector.”


    This new piece of legislation will cost the budget around 200 million euros this year and some 580 million euros in 2017.




    Problems in the agriculture sector


    Hundreds of farmers have taken to the streets of Bucharest on Tuesday, unhappy with the delays in the payment of subsidies and in the adoption of some crucial laws for this sector. The head of the Agriculture Committee with the Chamber of Deputies, Nini Sapunaru, alongside other MPs, announced that they are working on several bills for the farming sector, while Agriculture Minister Achim Irimescu has promised them that subsidies will be fully paid by end-July. Minister Irimescu’s activity, however, has been monitored by MPs, who are accusing him of bad management. The Chamber of Deputies’ plenary sitting has even passed, with a majority of votes, a simple motion against Achim Irimescu. Under the law, this motion does not automatically trigger the minister’s dismissal, as such decision can only be taken by the prime minister.




    Anti-corruption and the rule of law


    The Ambassador of France to Bucharest, François Saint-Paul, awarded the highest French civilian decoration, that of Knight of the Legion of Honour, to the chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruţa Kövesi. According to the French official, the Romanian anti-corruption agency is highly popular and has become a model at European level. Laura Codruţa Kovesi emphasized that fighting corruption was vital to safeguarding the rule of law.


    Laura Codruţa Kovesi: “I am very proud to be working with brave, active people, who want to change Romania, who want to live in a country free from corruption, who know that we are all equal before the law and who have not allowed people with impressive wealth or with high-level public positions to intimidate them. This medal also rewards the fight to maintain and consolidate the rule of law. We will stay on this path, to the extent to which the institutional stability and the investigative abilities of the Anti-Corruption Directorate are preserved.”




    Official visits abroad


    The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, pleaded for stronger cooperation between Romania and Luxembourg. On Monday and Tuesday the head of state made an official visit to Luxembourg, where he stated, following talks with top-level officials, that there are promising results and further opportunities in the economic field, with Luxembourg being one of the most important investors in Romania. The President emphasized that Romania offers favourable market and resource conditions to investors, and that the two countries should consolidate the current achievements and identify cooperation areas to be approached in the future.



    Meanwhile, in Paris, the Prime Minister Dacian Cioloş took part on Thursday in a special meeting of the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which Romania intends to join. On Friday, Dacian Cioloş and his French counterpart Manuel Valls signed an updated roadmap for the strategic partnership between Romania and France. The Romanian PM was also invited to attend, together with President François Hollande, the opening ceremony of the European Football Championship and the opening game, between the host country and Romania.