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Pensions Below RON1,000 Won’t Be Reduced By 15%– Romanian Labor Minister

Romania’s Labor Minister Mihai Seitan told pensioners who protested Tuesday at the ministry’s headquarters, that pensions below 1,000 lei (EUR1=RON4.1838) will not be reduced by 15%, adding he will uphold the measure during Wednesday’s Government meeting.
Pensions Below RON1,000 Won’t Be Reduced By 15%– Romanian Labor Minister
25 mai 2010, 13:40, English

Pensioners’ representative Cristea Toader said, after talks with Seitan, the minister told them pensions below RON1,000 will not be reduced and pledged pensioners will receive treatment tickets in July and August.

Toader pointed out that, even if the minister keeps his promise, pensioners will still stage protests to persuade authorities to keep the pension point, an indicator used to calculate pensions, at 45% of the average gross salary.

The Government has pledged to drastically cut public spending to tighten the country’s budget deficit at 6.8% of GDP, in order for the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions to release a new installment of a EUR20 billion rescue loan agreed last year. Austerity measures entail wage cuts of 25% and pension and social welfare cuts of 15%. Thousands of people staged the biggest rally of the past 19 years outside the government building last week, trying to pressure authorities’ into watering down their austerity plan.