Romanian Public Servants Set For Full-Scale Strike Oct 9

Romanian public servants will go on full-scale strike as of October 9, demanding a 50% salary hike, union officials said Friday.

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“We will go on general strike as of Thursday (October 9 – e.n.), without going through the preliminary stages. The law allows it, provided we notify the authorities in due time (…),”said Vasile Marica, president of the Federation of Public Servants’ Unions.

On Thursday, Marica said public servants will launch a full-scale strike next week unless they receive a 50% pay hike to match the salary increase granted to personnel

in the educational system.

“Since teachers benefit from a political decision and saw a 50% salary raise, we will not settle for anything below this figure either (…),” Marica said following negotiations held with minister of Economy and Finance, Varujan Vosganian.

Marica said that the budget should be increased by RON1.1 billion (EUR1=RON3.7603) this year and EUR5.5 billion in 2009, to support such a measure.

Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian said in his turn that a new round of negotiations with representatives of the public servants will be held early next week.

The consultations with the trade unions will depend on how things develop. We will have a meeting at the beginning of next week, Vosganian said.

On Tuesday, the Romanian Parliament has adopted an ordinance that increases with 50% employees' wages in the education system. Following the announcement, other categories of state employees threatened to go on strike if they didn’t receive the same wage increase.

The Romanian government decided in September to increase the minimum monthly gross wage to RON540, based on an agreement signed by representatives of trade unions and employers with the government at the end of July. The increase came into effect on October 1.

Under the agreement, the minimum wage is to rise to RON600 on January 1, 2009, and is to reach 50% of the average salary by 2014.

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