Romanian Public Administration Unions Suspend Strike As Labor Ministry Gives In To Demands

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Union leader Romel Neagu told MEDIAFAX that protests would be suspended, following talks on Friday with Labor Ministry officials regarding the application of the unitary wage law.

Neagu said Labor Ministry officials sent every territorial department clarifications on government emergency ordinance 1/2010 regarding the application of the unitary wage law. The union leader said all of the salary rights provided by the collective labor contracts would be respected, so that no employee would have a lower salary compared to December 2009.

Therefore, the protests announced by FNSA are postponed until the issue of jobs is clarified. The 46,000 signatures supporting a general strike remain valid in case the strike is rescheduled, Neagu said.

The union leader said there would be talks with Labor Ministry officials regarding layoffs in the public administration system. Furthermore, Neagu said, FNSA will take part in protest action announced by "Cartel Alfa", to which FNSA is affiliated.

FNSA leaders talked Friday with Labor Minister Mihai Seitan about unionists' demands to receive material rights provided by their collective labor contracts, such as food and gift vouchers. The unions also requested a meeting with Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu.

Public administration employees countrywide went on a two-hour warning strike on February 2 and the protests were to continue on February 9, with an indefinite full-blow strike planned to start on February 12 if the Government turned a blind eye on the public administration unionists' requests to increase small salaries and give up layoff plans.

Neagu said the conflict was propelled by wage reductions, planned layoffs and the repeated breaches of the constitutional principles regarding collective negotiations and local authorities' right to manage their own financial resources.

Unionists also demand that Order 32/42 of the labor and finance ministers subordinating local authorities to a structure of the central administration be cancelled.

Romanian authorities plan to cut up to 100,000 jobs in the country's overstaffed public sector.