Police unionists to picket Finance Ministry between Aug 9 - 11

Police unionists will be picketing between August 9 - 11 the headquarters of the Finance Ministry in Bucharest, mainly over grievances referring to the enforcement of the Public Pay Framework Law, the grant of bonuses provided for by law, the updating and recalculation of public service military pensions, the National Police and Contractual Personnel Trade Unions Federation (FSNPPC) informs.

"If we don't get a positive response from the government, we will legally expand demonstrations nationwide, resorting to original protest forms. (...). The political and government decision-makers are further defying the rights of police, contractual personnel and reserve/retired military personnel (Interior Ministry retirees), which is why we are kicking off a string of street protests. We tried various forms of negotiation: we sent everybody written demands, we had direct meetings and social dialogue sessions with the Prime Minister of the Government of Romania, with all the coalition parties, with the heads of the Chambers of Parliament and with MPs sitting on the select committees, with the Interior Ministers and other relevant Ministers, but all of them permanently passed our legitimate demands and the solutions thereto from one to another," the statement reads.

According to the cited source, the main grievances include the application of the Public Pay Framework Law No. 153/2017 - Annexes VI and VIII (referring to military personnel, police and contractual personnel), which fully concern the budgetary occupational family Defense, Public Order and National Security.

"In fact, the law was circumvented in recent years by government emergency ordinances which defied the economic, social and professional rights/interests of us all," the trade unionists claim.

The list of grievances also includes the grant of certain bonuses provided for by law but left at the (subjective) discretion of the credit release authorities. According to the trade unionists, a relevant example is the stress bonus intended to render the Judicial Police more efficient, and which "is applied in a discretionary manner in the structures of the Interior Ministry, at a minimal level, although Framework Law No. 153/2017 authorizes the Minister to raise it to 25 percent."

The Police unionists also demand that public service military pensions be updated and recalculated according to Law No. 223/2015, as they have also been frozen in recent years, again through OUG, and "even overtaxed by the government, in a discretionary manner, starting from 2022." AGERPRES