Romanian Education Union Sues Govt Over Decree Regulating Public Sector Wages

The union filed a lawsuit against the government Friday at the Bucharest Court of Appeals over government emergency decree no.1/2009, which the union said was issued breaching constitutional provisions.

The union said the decree coexists with another normative act, emergency decree 151/2008, which was not repealed and which also regulated wages of staff in the education sector.

Unionists added all recent decrees regarding wages in education delay the enforcement of Law 221/2008, which grants teachers a wage hike of 37%, although the Parliament, Constitutional Court and the head of state all cleared the law.

The government has no right to refuse to apply the will of the two other stately powers, using all kinds of legal artifices that aren’t even thought-out, nor does it have the right to create legal chaos which has severe consequences on the wages of staff in the education system, union secretary general said Constantin Ciosu in a statement.

Early February, the union said it notified the International Labor Organization and the Council of Europe regarding the issue of wage hikes promised in the education sector and demanded the enforcement of Law 221/2008 which sets that teachers’ wages were to increase 50% as of October last year.

Romanian President Traian Basescu promulgated that law on October 24, 2008. Four days later, the liberal government at that time passed an emergency decree postponing the enforcement of the law until April 2009. The government later issued a new decree stating teachers’ wages would be increased gradually by up to 28%.

 

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