The trade unions in Education rejected, on Thursday, the Government’s offer to end the protests and the strike in the sector continues, the leaders of the trade union federations announced on Thursday, after consultations with the Government. “The mandate we received was to reject the offer, it is the people who are sovereign, the people signed up for the general strike, the people decide whether it goes ahead. We are specifically waiting next week to see what happens”, says Simion Hăncescu.
The FSLI leader explained that people are dissatisfied with the fact that the new salary scale is to be applied in three years and recalled that doctors received the full increases requested when Health was declared a priority area. “People said that it is not accepted that this grid should be applied in 3 years, but much faster. Remember that I also said here at one point that people want a 25% salary increase. Or, if we look at what happened with that thousand lei, this percentage is not reached. Things are very simple. We appreciate the fact that the ordinance was given, but the time horizon proposed by the Government, of 3 years, is not accepted. I remind you that there is an area that was declared a priority in 2018. It’s about health, where doctors were granted the full increase, so not in installments. 5 years have passed. People want the Romanian state to make this effort for education as well, to be able to reach the salaries on the grid. The argument that the Government came up with is that the Ordinance is given and more cannot be done at this moment. The ordinance has passed and there will be discussions at the Ministry of Labor on the salary scale, because we also need to clarify things related to auxiliary and administrative staff“, Hăncescu also pointed out.
In his turn, Marius Nistor, the leader of the “Spiru Haret” Federation of Education Unions, also emphasized that the union members want the full application of the salary scale, starting this month, and that the protest actions will continue after June 6. “The mandate is very clear: the salary scale that was negotiated with the Ministry of Education should be fully implemented starting this month. There is no other mandate, we have nothing to discuss outside of that mandate, and from Tuesday onwards our colleagues will continue the protest actions, being the only ones in a position to decide otherwise”, said Marius Nistor.
The teaching staff had decided on Thursday morning, by mutual agreement, to ask for a salary of 4,000 lei for beginners, starting this month. This is the only way they will give up the strike.
On the other hand, the rulers say that the offer made yesterday is the last. The offer on the table, which increased salaries by 1,000 lei, was refused by the teachers. They set the minimum offer they would accept to call off the general strike.
Their request refers to the application of the salary law from this month, so that the salary of a debutante teacher increases to 4,000 lei from this month. Currently, this salary is 2,500 – 2,600 lei. The teachers say they will not accept another offer. The executive proposed a salary increase of 1000 lei gross and 400 lei gross respectively to teaching staff and non-teaching staff, followed by a phased salary increase over the next three years, through the future salary law.
On Thursday, the government approved the ordinance establishing salary increases in education, with 1000 lei gross for teaching staff and 400 lei gross for non-teaching staff. The Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, gave three examples of salaries that teachers will have, depending on their experience. A beginning teacher with higher education now has 2,376 lei net without any increase and would reach, through the adopted GEO, 2,956 lei net. A teacher with long-term higher education, definitive teaching degree, experience between 5 and 10 years, will go from the current salary, without any increase, of 2,713 lei, to 3,365 lei net. A teacher with long-term higher education, teaching grade I, with over 25 years of experience will go from 3,985 lei to 4,707 lei net.
“We wish that, after these days off, we can all return to school, resuming the educational process. We have all witnessed, in the last two weeks, protest movements among teachers and education staff that brought to the fore the need for support for education. I heard everyone’s voice and the steps taken by the coalition and implemented by the Romanian Government are a sign. In this sense, I communicated daily, sometimes several times a day, in different formats at the governmental level, but also at the level of the Ministry of Education with the representatives of teaching staff and looked for solutions. Of course, we still have a lot to do in order to have that system, but practically, through the normative act adopted today, we manage to cover the public requests of teaching staff. The salary increases represent the measure with immediate effect, that 1000 gross lei added to the salary base for teaching and auxiliary teaching staff and the 400 gross lei for non-teaching staff”, said minister Deca.
The increases are borne from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Education, and the financial impact on the general consolidated budget for the current year amounts to 2.168 billion lei.
The representatives of the unions in Education reported on Wednesday evening that the teachers who are on strike decided to continue the protest action, following the consultation of the affiliated union organizations, which did not accept the salary offer of the Government.
“The message of colleagues who are on strike is clear: The strike continues! The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education and the Federation of Trade Unions in Education «Spiru Haret», after consulting the affiliated trade union organizations, decided not to accept the Government’s offer. The offer was discussed with the territorial unions, who in turn consulted the union members. The majority of union members, who are on strike, voted for the continuation of the protest action”, says the statement signed by Marius Nistor, president of the “Spiru Haret” Federation of Education Unions and Simion Hăncescu, president of the Federation of Free Education Unions.