Unionists of local administrations have held on Tuesday a one hour strike at the beginning of the work programme, on July 19 the strike is to be organized indefinitely, due to the initiation of the labour conflict by the National Federation of Unions in Administration (FNSA) at national level.
A FNSA release issued on Monday reads that the meeting on June 27, 2016 with the Minister of Labour has not reached any consensus for conciliation.
“By adopting the Emergency Ordinance no. 20/2016 regarding the salaries of staff paid from public funds in 2016, the extension of deadlines and fiscal measures, the personnel working in the county councils and in the city halls countrywide was obviously discriminated against the employees in the central administration (who have received pay increases of up to 70%),” the release reads.
Unionists also argue that the Romanian government has an obligation to urgently address the major problems faced by the employees of local public administration in Romania, as they are and remain the most poorly paid and discriminated category of employees in the public sector.
The unionists say that employees in municipalities and county councils have similar gross wage earnings or value equal to the minimum gross salary per economy (RON 1,250 as of May 1, 2016).
The FNSA demands: the increase of civil servants basic salaries and of the staff of the local public administration by 25%, the granting of food norm for all employees of the local public administration, where budget resources allow it, and the granting of holiday vouchers for the employees of local public administration.
The next forms of protest are: July 12, 2016 – strike during the entire work program and July 19, 2016 – indefinite strike.
Labour Minister Dragos Pislaru: No wage increases at this moment
Labour Minister Dragos Pislaru said on Tuesday, following the warning strike in public administration, that the current budget does not allow wage increases for all budgetary. Pislaru said for digiFM that talks could be held about meal vouchers or holiday vouchers, but under certain conditions.
“The wage increase is not possible within the law we work on. Out of the four demands, only one is possible now. We are under budgetary constraint and we don’t have a bottomless bag,” minister Pislaru said.
“The first two issues, those related to the food norm and holiday vouchers – they demanded that, if the local authorities can afford, to get such things. In principle I said yes,” the minister added. “The problem is if we set a level of financial efficiency such as the own revenues to represent some 80% of the overall revenues for the public local administration,” he underscored.