Romanian Govt Open To Reducing Retirement Age For Mothers

Pensions will not be reduced and the pension point will be set to recah at least 45% of the gross average wage, Boc said. Talks on increasing the minimum wage from 600 to 705 lei (EUR1=RON4.0824) will continue into next month.

The prime minister said the salaries paid in November 2009 will carry over into 2010, but not at their December 2009 level, which included „illegal bonuses.” Discussions on this subject with union leaders will be resumed Saturday.

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc met with union representatives Friday at the Labor Ministry for talks on the unitary wage law and the new pension law, and two union leaders left discussions after Boc told them they are free to leave the room if they are displeased with the way the meeting was organized.

The two union leaders said unions which had nothing to do with the planned discussions were also invited to attend the meeting, adding it was the prime minister’s reaction that determined them to leave discussions.

Nonetheless, Petcu, one of the two leaders who left the meeting, said, „the planned protests have nothing to do with the prime minister’s attitude.”

„We came to talk with Boc and tell him what we plan to do. We thought together we could find a solution for our protests, but the prime minister seems not to wish the same thing,” added Petcu.

Boc called on the union leaders who left the meeting to come back for negotiations, adding he sent nobody home and problems between unions should be solved somewhere else and not during meetings with Government representatives.

Unionists want the unitary wage law and the pension law to be amended, a minimum wage of RON705, halting layoffs, unblocking EU funds and a coherent anti-crisis plan.