Romanian SMEs No Longer Welcome Holiday Tickets

“Companies’ obligation to cover the costs of six minimum gross wages will force 20% of SMEs into bankruptcy, because they don’t have that kind of money. If they did, they would have paid higher salaries to their employees. We are against holiday tickets, because the measure does not consider the existing economic climate,” said Ovidiu Nicolescu, head of the National Council for Private SMEs in Romania, or CNIPMMR.

 

End February, Nicolescu said that holiday tickets for employees are “most welcome”, except for the fact that it breaches the government’s promise to cut spending.

 

“We are not sure it was necessary to increase budget spending just to help companies in the tourism industry. Introducing holiday tickets implies a budget effort of 0.35% of the GDP, nearly double the amount allocated to the SMEs Ministry to support all small and medium-sized companies,” Nicolescu said at the time.

 

He said employees should have to contribute with 15% to 20% of the tourism package as well.

 

The Romanian government approved in February the introduction of holiday tickets for employees and set their value at up to six gross minimum wages a ticket. Romania’s minimum gross wage is currently set at 600 lei (EUR1=RON4.2950) per month.

 

However, only companies that reported profit for the previous fiscal year are allowed to grant holiday tickets to employees.

 

Employers cover the entire amount of the tickets.