Romanian Public Sector Employees Protest In Bucharest, Countrywide Over Unpaid Bonuses

Employees with the National Employment Agency and the Bucharest Employment Agency halted their activity Thursday, at 9 a.m., and started protesting on hallways, demanding they receive their wage bonuses. Romanian Labor Minister Ioan Botis arrived at the headquarters of the National Employment Agency at 11 a.m. and invited unionists to civilized talks regarding their demands.

Earlier Thursday, Botis talked to the employees of the National Pension House, after they said they would also halt their activity. At the end of talks, Botis said he cannot oppose a legal protest action, adding, however, he hopes Pension House employees will not resort to spontaneous protests similar to those staged by Finance Ministry employees countrywide. Botis promised Pension House employees they will continue to get incentives, but admitted that low wages represent the biggest problems. He stressed incentives will be included in salaries through the new unitary salary law.

Almost 500 employees with local fiscal administration and treasury departments are protesting outside the Finance Ministry building over unpaid bonuses.

Romanian Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomitianu, Interior Minister Traian Igas and fiscal administration head Sorin Blejnar held talks Thursday morning with Prime Minister Emil Boc about employees' protests over the non-payment of bonuses and incentives. At the end of talks, Ialomitianu returned to the Finance Ministry for talks with unionists at 12 p.m..

Employees with the National Health Insurance House and local departments halted their activity Thursday, at 12 p.m., and are protesting on hallways out of solidarity with the other public sector employees.

Health Insurance House head Dorin Ionescu said the management is in talks with the employees to find the best solutions so that insured people will not be affected in any way.

Employees in the sector of postal services and communications said they will join all protest actions staged by the employees in the finance, healthcare, education and administration sectors, and asked the Government to find solutions to the problems faced by Romanians.

Over 60 employees with the Pension House in Cluj, northwestern Romania, staged a spontaneous protest Thursday, displeased with the existing salary grid and the non-payment of monthly incentives. Unionists met with the Pension House management to draw up a list of demands and send it to Labor Minister Botis.

Several employees with the city hall and Local County in Constanta, southeastern Romania, also halted their activity Thursday and staged a spontaneous protest out of solidarity with the employees of the Public Finance Administration and the General Public Finance Department.

Boc said Wednesday incentives may only be granted using performance criteria and not by default. In turn, Blejnar said employees may get bonuses and incentives if they manage to reach their set budget revenue collection target, a target that has been missed in the first half of the year.

The Government slashed the wages in the entire public sector by 25% this summer, as part of an anti-crisis program to reduce the budget deficit. Former Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu had promised his ministry's employees they would continue to receive bonuses until a new unitary wage law entered force, as the elimination of these incentives would, in effect, translate into a 60% pay cut.

Vladescu was replaced with Gheorghe Ialomitianu in September, with Prime Minister Emil Boc citing the former's plan to keep giving bonuses as one of the reasons.

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