PM Viorica Dancila and Labour minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu went to Cotroceni Palace on Tuesday, as requested by President Klaus Iohannis a day ago.
The head of state asked them to provide explanations on the salary law and its effects. „As we agreed together, I wanted to have a discussion on the salary issue. Things have evolved and after a first quarter since the law had been enforced we are able to draw some conclusions. On the other hand, we see there are categories of employees who are discontent, we see there are trade union manifestations and I want to you to provide some explanations,” Iohannis said, according to Digi24.
“Romania’s President has warned the Government that, after the first three months after enforcement the effects of the new public salary law show that the law contradicts the principles of equality and predictability, considering that it contains punctual exceptions for various staff categories, which is annulling the unitary character of the law initiative,” says a press release by the Presidential Administration.
“Although salary rise by 25% have been pledged starting January 1, 2018, these increases have been actually annulled by the fiscal contrivance of transferring the social securities to the employees (…) Through the exceptions applied later on, the current salary framework ends up by rather capitalizing the affiliation of the staff to a certain institution or another,” says Iohannis’ message to the Dancila Gov’t.
The head of state also argued that “predictability in establishing the salary rights is out of question, as long as various new amendment come up for different staff categories, which prompt wages discriminations and encourage other employees to demand similar rights.”
Iohannis also pointed out that the “most-expected” salary rises for doctors and teachers are only “partially” solving the basic problems of these fields, adding that the increases must be accompanied by guarantees for the future.
He stressed that “a carousel” of the salary amendments and of unpredictability must be avoided, considering the wages situation is in constant motion.
The President further stated that although the social securities transfer and the salary tax cut from 16 pc to 10 pc have prompted “a modest increase od the net wages, of about 5 pc on average”, this rise is annulled by the growing inflation that reached 4.7% in February.” In this respect, the head of state has urged the Government “to be prudent in tackling the economic policies so that the sustainability of the citizens’ standard of living should be ensured”.
As for PM Dancila, the release says she has assured that the financial resources needed to enforce the salary law are stable, while Labour minister Vasilescu has explained that the salary grid will be fully effective as of 2022.
Media had no access to attend the meeting.
The prime minister has admitted this morning during ceremonies on Gendarmerie Day that some issues had come up after transferring the social securities from the employer to the employee.
“The decrease of the Pension Pillar II contributions happened at the same time with the transfer of the social securities from the employer to employee. It seems that salaries are not up in all places. We’ll find solutions,” said the premier, while revealing the meeting at Cotroceni was an expected one.
“We talked about this when we had CSAT two weeks ago. We talked then about a meeting to debate all these issues. So, it was not a surprise invitation,” Dancila explained.
More to follow…