Romanian Railway Employees Threaten To Cease Work If Affected By Wage Cuts

Sala said that railway employees decided not to go on strike out of solidarity with other public sector employees protesting planned wage cuts, as long as their wages are not affected.

The union leader highlighted that railway employees' salaries have already been reduced by 26% in 2010, compared to last year, and stressed that over 10,000 railway employees will be laid off by the end of 2010.

Labor Minister Mihai Seitan said Monday that, during Sunday's Government meeting, it was decided that representatives of the Labor, Finance and Justice Ministries should draw up a normative act by Wednesday meant to reduce the salaries of employees with state-owned companies and public institutions.

Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu said Monday that wages of employees within state-owned companies won't be cut by 25%, as in the case of other public sector employees. The minister declined to give further details, adding the Government is working on a draft law to this end.

"We'll apply a different system in state-owned companies. You'll see the draft law, I can't say more now. The 25% cut in public sector wages won't be applied in state-owned companies," Vladescu said during a seminar discussing the labor market.

Romania's Government Sunday evening adopted two draft laws cutting public sector wages by one fourth and pensions and social welfare benefits by 15%, in a bid to tighten this year's budget deficit to 6.8% of GDP and meet the requirements of an IMF-led EUR20 billion rescue loan the country agreed last year. The drafts have been submitted to Parliament and the Government will seek a confidence vote to adopt them.

The Romanian authorities' initial austerity plan also slashed the wages of employees in state-owned companies, a move unions have deemed illegal. Another plan was to force employees in state-owned companies to give part of their wages to a solidarity fund, but no concrete measures have been taken so far.

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