Romania’s draft Wage Law for the budgetary sector has failed to secure explicit support from most major trade unions, with employee organisations criticising proposed pay levels and restrictions on bonuses as the government seeks to complete a milestone under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
Most unions, with the notable exception of SindFISC, which represents employees of the Ministry of Finance, have raised objections to the draft. The main points of contention are the proposed cap on bonuses at 20% of base salary and the reduction of the benchmark used to calculate public sector wages from RON 4,100 to RON 4,000 next year, Economica.net reported.
The government has proposed the lower benchmark as part of efforts to keep the overall payroll within budgetary constraints while preserving the relative pay differences between positions.
The draft aims to replace a fragmented system in which discretionary bonuses have become an important component of remuneration with a more transparent structure based on standardised coefficients.
The lack of broad employee support also reflects the limited involvement of unions in developing the current version of the legislation. Trade unions have criticised the consultation process, while the government has sought to advance the bill rapidly because the reform is linked to Romania’s access to PNRR funding.
A group of five trade union federations has particularly criticised the 20% ceiling on bonuses and the lower wage benchmark. Other objections concern the legitimacy of the interim government and the extent to which unions should have been involved in negotiations, although unions themselves have previously declined some opportunities to participate in the process.
CulturMedia has questioned the proposed remuneration of experts working in museums, arguing that their salaries would remain low compared with those of junior employees in the education sector, according to Economica.net.
The Sanitary Solidarity trade union is preparing a survey among its members to assess the effect of the proposed law on individual incomes. The organisation’s approach reflects uncertainty among healthcare employees over how the new coefficients and bonus rules would affect their remuneration.
SindFISC has taken a different position. Its executive office said that no employee within the Ministry of Finance system would see their salary reduced as a result of the new legislation and that many employees would receive significant increases.
The government faces a difficult balance between implementing a more transparent wage structure and limiting the fiscal cost of the reform. The draft is also politically sensitive because changes to discretionary bonuses would reduce one of the mechanisms through which pay has historically been differentiated across the public sector.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Vlad Ispas/Dreamstime.com)
Leave a Reply