wage hikes

Romania’s Chamber of Deputies adopted Wednesday with 201 pros, one con and one abstention, the government decree hiking the wages of the clergy, to 65% of teachers’ base salary and to 75% for priests serving in churches with scarce funding.

The teachers’ wage hike will be included in the draft budget, but a 50% increase is too high for university professors, Romanian Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu said after talks with the union representatives.

The increase of state employees’ wages to be granted this period should correspond to the inflation rate and the economic growth, so as not to hurt Romania’s economy, head of the privatization authority Teodor Atanasiu told a press conference Friday.

Nearly 100,000 public servants affiliated to the Romanian Federation of Public Servants’ Unions Sed Lex went on a two-hour warning strike Thursday morning, and threaten general strike on October 16.

Romanian public servants will go on warning strike as of October 9, after negotiations on salary hikes between trade union officials and finance ministry failed on Monday, unionists said.