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Cluj-Napoca mayor Emil Boc supports the scrapping of special pensions, stressing that there shouldn't be discrepancies between wages in the local and the central public administration. "I will always be an advocate of scrapping special pensions, because I have always considered that all must be equal before the law, and this means having a decent wage in order to collect a decent pension later on. I don't agree of special pensions that would create privileged categories. From this perspective it is preferable and desirable that local public administration staff have decent wages in order to collect decent pensions, and that there are not such wide discrepancies between wages in central and local public administration, with the former two times, or even three times higher than the wages in local administration. It's these principles that we are talking about and not necessarily the amount. (...) Such large discrepancies between the wages in central administration, for instance the ministers' wages, the pays of MPs - and those in local administration are unacceptable," Boc said Friday before the meeting of the National Liberal Party's League of Local Elected Officials.
Asked to define a decent wage Boc said this subject is for the government to address. Emil Boc conceded to judiciary professionals possibly collecting special pensions, although as a principle he considers such benefits shouldn't be paid in Romania at all. "Otherwise, wages must be such as to produce higher pensions on the basis of the contribution principle. (...) If wages are higher, the contribution is higher and the pension will implicitly be higher too. Attempts are being made again to award special privileges to various industries, but this way Romania's entire wage and pension system is sent crumbling. As long as this balance is not preserved, we will further have discrepancies like in 2009 - 2010. I think a certain ratio that is favorable to the central administration could be preserved, but not with figures two or three time higher as now, local governments should benefit too, under observance of the proportional contribution principle. Keeping this balance prevents the emergence of privileged categories which further disrupt the entire system. I already think the system is pushed to the brink by the distortions caused by the special pensions for MPs, diplomats, others. Having a unitary system is then impossible," Boc said. In a different thread he said he doesn't want to be the Liberals' proposal for PM.
