Opinions on the Unified Pay Scale Law

The ruling coalition wants the unified pay scale law to come into effect starting July 1.

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Roxana Vasile, 06.04.2017, 13:28

In many respects, Romania is a paradox. For instance, salaries in Romania don’t scale while reflecting the importance of the activity in question, the employee’s school and university degrees, accumulated service or professional experience. Over the years this has led to numerous anomalies surfacing in numerous cases that have scandalized the public, which are hard to imagine they would ever occur in another EU member state.

The current ruling coalition, made up of the Social-Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, wants to do away with these inconsistencies by drafting a law on the unified pay scale for public sector employees. More to the point, the Social-Democrats want the new law to take effect as soon as possible, therefore by seeking Parliament’s vote of confidence on this move, so that public sector employees might benefit from a salary increase as early as July 1. Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea explained that salaries would be increased in stages over the next five years, and the increase will be calculated depending on the national minimum wage.

Liviu Dragnea: “By 2020 the budget for salaries will get a 56% increase, accounting for 32 billion lei, and the process will continue in 2021 and 2022, so that starting 2023 we will have only two criteria for increasing salaries”.

On the other hand, Varujan Vosganian, a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, says the unified pay scale cannot take effect before 2018, because the move requires complex debates in Parliament: “I don’t believe the law can come into effect in 2017. It might come into effect in 2018, and its scope might be extended to 2022”.

The opposition has challenged the initiative, deeming it undoable, arguing the funds are insufficient to sustain the high number of salary hikes. In turn, National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu says the salary increase is necessary, although it must be kept in check, given that Romania achieved its current economic and financial stability at great cost.

Mugur Isarescu: “Salary increases are inevitable. What we must do is be wise about it and keep them in check in a reasonable manner, taking into account all the indicators pertaining the macroeconomic and financial stability. These are very valuable to us. Romania got here by sacrificing a lot and it would be wrong for us to weaken our current position”.

Under the new unified pay scale, high-ranking officials will have the highest salaries: first the President, then the Prime Minister, followed by the speakers of the two chambers of Parliament, the president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the president of the Constitutional Court of Romania. The second best-paid social category will include university rectors, hospital managers and judges, followed by medical staff and university teachers. The law also provides for a substantial increase of salaries in the education, healthcare, cultural, military and diplomacy sectors.

(Translated by Vlad Palcu)