Romanian Govt To Accept Only Law Pack Amendments Compliant With Budget Provisions - PM

Government officials met Sunday, September 13, to decide which of the amendments can be accepted within the aforementioned boundaries.

Boc met Saturday with union leaders for a new round of talks on the draft unitary pay law and decided, among others, to set up an inter-ministry committee, which will also include unionists and will work on amendments to the unitary pay law until June 30, 2010.

According to Government spokesperson, Ioana Muntean, Boc said the Executive maintains its decision to take responsibility for three draft laws before Parliament by the set deadline, adding, however, that, in the light of recent decisions between the two parties, the unions are no longer entitled to call general strike on October 5.

Following talks with the unions, the social democrats and democrat liberals in the country's ruling coalition met Saturday evening to thoroughly analyze all amendments proposed to the three law packs for which the government plans to take responsibility.

Several amendments submitted to the Government on Saturday target to hike wage quotients for lawmakers and parliamentary advisers, eliminate restrictions on filling vacancies, by cumulating positions, introduce the management indemnity in the basic wage and pay overtime.

The amendments target, among others, to increase wage quotients for senators and deputies to the equivalent of 11 minimum wages (compared to the current 9.9 wages), increase the wage quotient for management positions in Parliament and calculate it in ratio with professional ranking, so that the maximum quotient for parliamentary advisers will equal 6.50 wages, while that for a high school graduate public servant will equal 4.25 wages, according to an official document.

The current form of the draft unitary pay law stipulates that the maximum wage quotient for an adviser within a dignitary's cabinet equals 4.30 minimum wages.

Other amendments target to eliminate the expression "in exceptional cases," on filling vacancies by cumulating positions, introduce two bonuses and management indemnities in the basic salary, as of January 1, 2010, and pay overtime in 2010, along with monthly bonuses of 2% of wage costs.

The draft law currently stipulates that, in exceptional cases, vacancies and temporary vacancies can also be filled by cumulating positions and staff hired through contest or exam, while observing the legal provisions on cumulating positions and filling vacancies.

The amendments also target to extend and increase indemnities to 40% of the basic salary, from the current 20%, for skilled teachers in rural areas, to grant the 15% bonus of the basic salary, stipulated only for visually impaired people with I degree of disability, as well as for visually impaired people with severe disability, extend the financial aid in case of death, from the social security budget, for education employees and the auxiliary staff in the sector, based on the stipulation that the value of the financial aid equals five gross wages of the deceased, to eliminate permanent bonuses that are not stipulated in annexes and were not included in salary, and to eliminate any special bonuses from own non-abrogated regulations.

Lawmakers submitted at the Chamber of Deputies over 500 amendments to the draft unitary pay law and over 1,000 amendments to the draft education law, while the total number of amendments submitted to the Senate amounts to 700.

Most amendments to the unitary pay law, of which 55 submitted by senators and 77 submitted by deputies, target the staff in the legal system. In addition, four amendments target to increase the salaries of the judges with the Court of Accounts, ten amendments target to increase the salaries of the Constitutional Court staff, while another five amendments target to increase the salaries of university and pre-university education staff.

If you liked this story, please follow MEDIAFAX.RO on FACEBOOK »

The content of mediafax.ro is for your information only. Republishing or using this content is forbidden without express consent of MEDIAFAX. For this consent, please ask for it by mail at vanzari@mediafax.ro.