Trade unions stage protests
Trade unions from various Romanian sectors stage protest actions.
Leyla Cheamil, 02.02.2023, 13:50
The spike in electricity and fuel prices and the ever expensive food products have prompted trade unions in Romania to stage new protests. Employees in the education system took to the streets to signal, once again, the problems in their sector. Trade unionists in the education system picketed on Wednesday the Government offices to ask for decent salaries, for the non-teaching staff in particular. Trade union representatives say the non-teaching staff is the only category of public servants whose pay has not reached, by 2023, the level of base salaries provided by the law and who continue to only receive between 1,800 and 2300 lei per month. The higher inflation rate, which stood at 16.4% last December, and the more expensive basic products have seriously affected their living standards.
Trade unionists say the teaching staff s salaries are also smaller than they should be and call for the adoption of legislation that should reposition employees in the education system in the hierarchy of public servants, in keeping with their professional level and the importance that society should give to education. Moreover, the Free Trade Union Confederation in Education and the Spiru Haret and Alma mater trade unions, have warned over a weak point in education. In their opinion, the very small salaries in the education system is the main cause for the lack of qualified teaching staff, as very few young people choose to work in the education system and the staff close to the end of their professional career choose to retire. Another problem in the last few years has been, according to unionists, the alarming high number of under qualified teaching staff, instead of a smaller number.
The healthcare system has its own set of problems. The Sanitas Federation will picket the Government offices on February 6, for at least one week. They have numerous demands, of which two are urgent. One of them is for the authorities to increase the salaries of all healthcare staff by at least 15% starting this month, to cover inflation. Trade unionists also want to have a say in the drafting of the future salary law, in order to remove discriminatory differences among doctors and nurses and also possible salary decreases.
On the other hand, in January, the Silva Trade Unions Federation in the Forestry Sector protested in front of the Government offices to prevent state owned forests from being sold. Their protest was directed against a draft law which they say would allow state owned forests from being privatized. The Government said in response that the draft law is not about privatizing forests but it is a legislative initiative that concerns corporate governance, an objective assumed under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. (EE)
