Fairness and the principle of contributiveness must take precedence in the way pensions are calculated, Labour Minister Violeta Alexandru said in northeastern Botosani on Friday at a meeting with Botosani businesspersons.
She has provided assurances that pensions will increase from 1 September, but has avoided expressing personal views related to both the percentage increase and how this increase is applied to each category of pensioners.
"I believe that what must take precedence is fairness and the principle of contributiveness. My concern is that between who have worked all their life every day and have a full traineeship and who, for various reasons, have not been able to do so - I do not judge, I do not assume that they did not want - pensions, should not come close, because then one discourages work. If I give you the signal that it will increase the pension of the one who did not work while you worked and, therefore, it is more advantageous to stay and not work than to work, I do not think it is a fair signal for Romanian society," minister Alexandru said.