Romanian Railroad Employees Accept Wage Offer, Cancel Protest

The minister said the minimum wage for railroad employees would increase to RON500 as of March 1 and to RON540 as of July 1, namely a raise of some 12%.

 

Orban said Tuesday after the meeting with unionists that an agreement has been reached, and the two parties are to sign an additional agreement valid until Dec 31, 2008 stipulating a raise in the minimum salary for railroad employees in ratio with the government decision setting the minimum wage per economy at RON500 as of Jan 1 and RON540 as of Jul 1. Orban added rail employees will receive the raise as of March 1, as the measure cannot be applied retroactively.

 

Orban also said unionists and ministry officials would have to find solutions to sustain the raise by increasing rail companies’ revenues.

 

Union leader Gheorghe Popa said at the end of the meeting that the organization decided to cancel the protest march in Bucharest scheduled for Wednesday.

 

"We are not fully satisfied with what we got. Ministry officials finally realized we cannot sign an additional agreement to the collective work contract, as that would translate into a minimum wage below the minimum wage per economy,” Popa said.