Romanian Public Administration Unionists Plan Warning Strike Tuesday, Full-Blown Strike As Of Feb 12

The National Federation of Unions in Administration (FNSA) president, Romel Neagu, told a news conference Monday that 44,000 unionists agreed to start protests over small wages and layoffs in the public sector.

Neagu said the conflict was propelled by wage reductions, planned layoffs and the repeated breaches of the constitutional principles regarding collective negotiations and local authorities’ right to manage their own financial resources.

Neagu said that, in the current context, the FNSA unionists will go on a two-hour warning strike on Tuesday, picket the Labor and Interior Ministries on February 9 and go on an indefinite general strike on February 12.

Neagu said public sector unionists are disgruntled with the government’s plan to slash jobs in the public sector, freeze wages and eliminate bonuses.

The union leader said another demand of the public sector employees is to recognize local authorities the right to grant bonuses from their own financial resources to attract and motivate employees.

Unionists also demand that Order 32/42 of the labor and finance ministers subordinating local authorities to a structure of the central administration be cancelled.

Romanian authorities plan to cut up to 100,000 jobs in the country’s overstaffed public sector.