The Three-Party National Council debated the public pensions system

Romanian Labour Minister Social-Democrat Lia Olguta Vasilescu this summer presented a bill for a new public pension system, benefiting some five million pensioners in Romania

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Leyla Cheamil, 21.09.2018, 12:46

Slated to take
effect on January 1, 2019 and implemented in several stages until 2021, the new
law provides not only for an increase in pensions, but the elimination of
disparities within the very system.

Pensions will be
paid only according to each pensioner’s contribution. If two pensioners have
similar periods of accumulated service but retired at different ages, they will
have the same pension. On Thursday the Three-Party National Council, which
brings together members of the Government, trade unions and employers’
associations, convened to discuss the new law.

Prime Minister
Viorica Dancila recalled that, since the ruling coalition came to power,
pensions saw three separate increases, the last being applied on July 1. The
Prime Minister believes the new law would ensure the sustainability of the
public pensions system, being designed to benefit pensioners.

Viorica Dancila: It’s a good project that, before anything else, rids the public
pensions system of inequities. It will lead to substantial pensions rises. The
pension point went up by 26% to approximately 239 euros, while the minimum
guaranteed pension also went up to 139 euros.

Conversely, the
president of the National Trade Union Bloc, Dumitru Costin, has signaled a
series of problems in the new pension law, adding however that these might be
dealt with over the next three months of parliamentary debate. In turn, the
leader of Cartel Alfa trade federation, Bogdan Hossu, said certain aspects
linked to special work conditions, the unfair sanctioning of employees and the
increase of minimum wages have been discussed, but they need to be regulated by
means of adequate legislation.

Bogdan Hossu: The minimum wage is bound to increase by a gross 30 euros by 2022, when
it will stand at some 543 euros.

The
vice-president of the National Association of Romanian Employers, Dan Matei
Agathon, expressed the point of view of his organization.

Dan Matei Agaton: We support this law and believe it has been over-debated. This is all
television stations talk about, night after night. Enough is enough! A year is
too much for a law to be debated. The law is sound and will bring money to
people in need, so let’s go ahead with it!

According to
data made public last week by the National Statistics Institute, the average
monthly pension stood at 244 euros in the second quarter of the year, the same
as the previous quarter, although by 10% more than the similar period of 2017.