Through the austerity measures taken by the Government of the 5 million workers in Romania, only 500,000 public workers will suffer because of the economic recession generated by the pandemic, declared on Wednesday, for AGERPRES, the president of the PUBLISIND Federation, Stefan Teoroc, during the protest held by the union in front of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.
"We request the Government to apply the law, nothing more. Nobody wants bigger wages. The Government must apply the law regarding wages just as it was adopted in Parliament. The law is at half of the enforcement period, it was implemented for 2 years. Half of those 1 million public workers almost reached the salaries foreseen for the year 2022, for the rest (the Government took) austerity measures," Stefan Teoroc said.
"The PUBLISIND Federation began protests on the 31st of December. This is the first day of protests for 2021. We have protests in Bucharest, here in front of the Ministry of Labor, but also at 3 prefectures in the country - Bacau, Timisoara and Cluj. The reason for these protests is, obviously, the Government's decision of freezing salaries and bonuses and the refusal of indexing pensions with the inflation value - it is for the first time when this decision was taken. Furthermore, the minimum wage was almost capped, it is grown by a pitiful amount, of only 40 RON net, completely disproportionate with productivity value, but also with the price hikes of consumer products. That is not an increase, of 40 RON net, while prices are exploding," Stefan Teoroc specified.
"Within the PUBLISIND Federation we have 60 unions and a total of 35,000 members, we are affiliated with the National Union Bloc (BNS). Starting today, every Wednesday, at 10 o'clock, we will protest in front of an institution in Bucharest - ministries, Government, Parliament, Presidency, overlaid with protests of 3 or 5 prefectures," the PUBLISIND Federation leader said.
Dozens of union members affiliated with the PUBLISIND Federation are taking part in a protest, on Wednesday, in front of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. According to the organizers, the unionists come from the fields of central, public and local administration, social assistance, police and border police, judicial, penitentiaries and probations, sports and youth, finance and financial control, environment and the RA-APPS (the administration of the state's private patrimony).