The draft of the new wage law could reach a maximum value of 7.3% of GDP and a total wage bill of 12.1 billion lei, interim Labor Minister Dragos Pislaru stated on Friday, following the debate on the legislation held at Cotroceni Palace.
"The Ministry of Labor, together with the World Bank team, conducted 14 consultation sessions, involving over 30 hours of meetings with institutions and trade unions. As a result of this exercise, we found that requests from the public sector and trade unions amounted to over 20 billion lei. Obviously, given Romania's current fiscal-budgetary commitments, this cannot be accommodated. We started with that political agreement on the eight-billion figure. In the meantime, we held discussions with the Ministry of Finance and the European Commission to explore the maximum value this project could haveensuring the milestone is met while Romania retains the resources to sustain its fiscal-budgetary trajectory. The figure derived from the renegotiated NRRP for milestone 420 is 7.3% of GDP; effectively, that is the ceilinga 7.3% increase in the total wage bill, which amounts to 12.1 billion lei. That is the maximum amount," said Pîslaru during an appearance on Digi24.
According to the official, a draft of the wage law bill was presented to political parties on Friday.
"We have now proposed a drafta preliminary version of the billwhich we presented to the political parties today. We remain ready to serve as a technical secretariat for the parties throughout the period leading up towe hopeits introduction in Parliament, specifically the formal submission of the bill by the political parties. We are confident that this bill will be adopted, not only for the sake of the 770 million euros associated with the milestone, but also to achieve a significant correction of inequities; we believe there are certain aspects of the current draft that merit analysis and support from the parties," emphasized the interim Minister of Labor.
He also noted that this is not a project belonging to any specific individual, nor to the Government.
For his part, Presidential Advisor Radu Burnete pointed out that the agreement is signed by four parties, which are set to discuss this project.
"We will see next week, after these discussions, what their views are. Today, we merely exchanged questions and the like. No one can commit to it without reading it," Burnete stated.
Acting Minister of Labor Dragos Pîslaru added that the draft law on remuneration is set to be published on Friday for public consultation.
"I would like to tell you something that will be very helpful: within a maximum of one houronce I can get to the Ministry of Laborthe draft will be made public, including the full impact assessment; however, it will remain up to the political parties to take it from there and arrive at the best version, while respecting the constraints of the milestone," the official stated.
Representatives of pro-Western parties and the interim Minister of Labor, Dragos Pîslaru, held discussions on Friday at Cotroceni Palace regarding the wage law, which is a milestone in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
