Romania Should Have Public Sector Wage Law Enforced In Six Months

The president of the CNSLR Fratia union federation, Marius Petcu, said government officials, employers and unions discussed Wednesday the principles of a unitary salary law for the public sector and set a new meeting for Friday morning, to complete the draft.

 

According to Petcu, the essential principle of the law in the introduction of a unitary system for all public sector employees, including lawmakers. "The basic principle is to draft a law for all state employees and the law also targets narrowing the gap between the minimum and maximum wage in the public sector,” Petcu said, adding the new law would not allow salary reductions.

 

Unionists said all parties involved in the talks agreed the law should be functional in six months at most and an agreement on it should be signed by all political parties early next week.

 

Unionists also said government officials proposed a 15% raise for public sector employees with low wages and no raises for those earning more than the average wage. They added the new law would benefit about 1 million employees, mostly public servants, followed by 300,000 employees in the education sector and 200,000 in healthcare.

 

Nearly 100,000 employees in Romania have monthly salaries of up to 640 lei (EUR1=RON3. 6829), over 330,000 employees are paid RON641 to RON700, 327,000 earn RON701 to RON1,000 and some 300,000 earn RON1,001 to RON1,500.