Radio România Internațional

Tag: public sector pay law

  • 1 July, 2017

    1 July, 2017

    Heat wave. Temperatures will
    soar today in Bucharest, which has been affected by a heat wave, to reach 42-44
    degrees Celsius. Temperatures will be even higher in other areas. A red code
    alert for extreme heat was issued on Saturday morning in 19 counties in the
    south and east of the country and in the capital Bucharest. The alert is in
    place until Saturday evening. The level of thermal discomfort is very high,
    while the temperature/humidity ratio is much above normal levels. The
    authorities have taken measures to alleviate the effects of the heat, such as
    providing first-aid services and water. Heavy-duty vehicles are banned from
    public roads affected by the heat wave and trains are running at low speed. The
    weather will become unstable in the evening, especially in the north, centre,
    north-east and in the mountains and storms, torrential rain, hail and
    thunderstorms are expected.




    Public sector salaries. The public sector pay
    law came into force on the 1st of July, after being signed by
    president Klaus Iohannis this week. The law will, however, be applied starting
    next year. It provides for a gradual increase in public sector salaries within
    the next five years, by more than 50% on average. The pension index also went
    up by 9% on 1st of July. At the same time, however, the price of
    electricity for domestic users went up by 8%, according to the liberalisation
    timetable. A full liberalisation is expected on 1st of January 2018,
    when the electricity price will be established by the stock market.




    Government. Mihai
    Tudose’s cabinet formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of
    Liberals and Democrats on Friday discussed a first reading of a bill on the
    creation of the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund. The purpose of the
    new body, whose sole stake-holder will be the Romanian state, is to finance
    profit-making investments in various economic sectors. According to prime
    minister Tudose, the creation of the Fund is in agreement with the European
    institutions, while the bill may reach Parliament in September. The approximate
    value of the Fund is 10 billion euros. Similar sovereign funds already exist in
    Norway, France, Italy and Poland.




    Defence. The
    Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has called a meeting of the Country’s Supreme
    Defence Council on Tuesday to discuss the army’s equipping plan for the
    2016-2026 period. This year, Romania has allocated 2% of its GDP to defence
    spending. The meeting on Tuesday will also look at the activity of the Romanian
    Intelligence Service in 2016. According to the president’s office, the
    Country’s Supreme Defence Council will also discuss about the number of troops
    that may be made available by Romania for international missions and operations
    in 2018.




    Festival. In July, Bucharest is playing host to the
    International Street Theatre Festival, which brings together hundreds of
    participants from Romania, France, Columbia, Italy, Germany, Holland, Austria
    and Spain. Every week-end from Friday to Sunday, the streets of Bucharest will
    host performances on stilts, magic shows, street dance performances and living
    statues. Acrobatics, light shows, juggling with torches and tango and cabaret
    performances will be held in the evening.




    Olympiad. Romania won two
    gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze at the third edition of the Balkan Geography
    Olympiad held between the 25th and the 30th of June in
    Ruse, Slovenia. According to the education ministry in Bucharest, these results
    put Romania in the first place in the nations’ standings. School children from
    five different countries took part in this year’s Olympiad.




    Wimbledon tennis. World
    no. 2 Simona Halep of Romania will play Marina Erakovic of New Zealand on
    Monday in the first round at Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam tournament of the
    year. Last year, Halep reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and was a
    semifinalist in 2014. Also in the first round of the women’s draw, Romania’s
    Monica Niculescu, world no. 51, will face Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova;
    Sorana Cirstea, world no. 62, plays Dutch player Kiki Bartens; while Irina
    Begu, world no. 69, faces the British player Naomi Broady. Ana Bogdan, world
    no. 114, who makes her Grand Slam debut, will face the Chinese player Ying-Ying
    Duan. In the men’s draw, Romania’s Marius Copil, world no. 85, will face the
    German player Peter Gojowczyk in the first round.

  • The president signs public sector pay bill into law

    The president signs public sector pay bill into law

    The recent political
    crisis in Bucharest has raised fears that the public sector salary law will be
    left aside for a while and its implementation delayed. Moreover, the removal of
    the Social-Democratic Cabinet headed by Sorin Grindeanu, who initiated the bill
    in the first place, and the prospects of its being replaced by a government of
    a different political colour had the pessimists believe that the law,
    benefiting a large part of the population, would be forgotten. However,
    everybody’s fears were dispelled when it was announced that president Iohannis has
    promulgated the law.




    A communiqué issued
    by the Presidential Administration reads that the head of state supports the
    need for a sustainable increase in the salaries of public employees, in order
    for their living standard to increase. The president has also stressed the fact
    that it is the responsibility of the parties that make up the ruling coalition
    – the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats – to
    ensure a balanced growth and to harmonise the income growth objective with that
    of maintaining Romania’s macro-economic and budgetary stability. This law
    should solve the salary issues facing the public sector, but without causing
    other problems instead, the president also said. Any subsequent budget
    adjustments should be made in a transparent, credible and responsible manner,
    without affecting sectors of utmost importance for the development of Romania’s
    economy, namely investments and infrastructure projects.




    The business
    community is worried that the Executive will introduce additional taxes and fees
    for private businesses in order to secure the money needed to increase salaries
    in the public sector. Here is the president of the National Council of Small
    and Medium-Sized Enterprises Liviu Rogojinaru:




    As long as we don’t
    know where the money comes from, as long as these salary increases are not
    based on a set of competence criteria, we are afraid that the Government, not
    knowing where to get the money from, will turn towards the private sector and
    will say: OK, let’s levy some extra taxes and fees, because this is the only
    place that we can take money from without too much trouble.




    There are trade
    union representatives who are not very happy with the new law either. The
    president of the Cartel Alfa Trade Union Confederation Bogdan Hossu has stated
    that the law will not solve, as it should, the salary gaps existing in the
    public sector, as there is no salary grid, for instance, for local public
    government employees.




    The public salary
    law stipulates that over the coming five years, state employees’ salaries will
    grow by more than 50% on average. State sector employees say that the law
    finally does them justice, all the more so as they were the first victims of
    the salary slashes operated in 2010, when the global economic crisis also
    spread to Romania.