Bonus law sent back to Parliament

President Traian Băsescu requested the Parliament to reexamine the law for the adoption of the emergency ordinance regarding some measures taken to reclassify certain positions in the public sector and to establish adequate salaries for these positions.

According to a Presidential Administration press release, the law, in its present form, is unbalanced and (unjust) unequitable as far as the collection and distribution of budget funds are concerned.

According to the reexamination request, the dispositions that regulate the introduction of funds which prevent receipts from being collected to the state budget must be abrogated, in order to stimulate the staff to fulfill its work duties.

The press release states that the law sent for promulgation is discriminatory towards public sector employees and in violation of the unitary salary system.

Public servants "will still receive bonuses"

"Public Finance employees will still receive performance bonuses", government spokesman Ioana Muntean announced.

She mentioned that starting January 1st, 2011, the unified salary law will come into force, a law that establishes fair conditions for similar positions in various state institutions.

As for President Traian Băsescu’s request to reexamine the public servants salaries Ordinance, which grants bonuses to public finance employees, it’s the Government that has to take a decision, not the Parliament, Ioana Muntean also said.

Public servants protest threats

Sebastian Oprescu, head of the National Union of Public Servants (SNFP) says that the President’s decision to send the law on bonuses back to Parliament is, to his mind, an excuse to block the good functioning of public institutions.

The SNFP leader says that he is going to look into the situation that emerges in the aftermath of the reexamination of the law, and also specifies that public servants will surely protest.

Sebastian Oprescu also emphasized that some public servants are at risk in their line of work, and, therefore, they need to be stimulated.

"There are people who take certain risks to fight tax evasion, they have contact with possible delinquents, and this is why they must be rewarded by the state", Sebastian Oprescu also said.

History of protests

On October 13th, about 200 public finance employees protested on the institution’s hallways, demanding their bonuses.

The spontaneous protests spread a day later in the rest of the country, thousands of employees from financial administrations, treasuries, houses of pensions, workforce agencies, health insurance houses, social care and libraries stopped work stopped work in a sympathy strike for the public finance employees.

As a result, trade unions, Ministry of Finance representatives and the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) took part in several rounds of negotiations on bonuses.

In the end, only Sebastian Oprescu, head of the SNFP, signed the protocol granting these cash bonuses with the Ministry of Finance.

Minister Gheorghe Ialomiţianu told the employees then that on October 19th a new law would be voted in Parliament that would ensure an equitable wage system for public finance employees.

On October 19th, the Lower House passed an emergency ordinance concerning the regulation of public servants bonuses, and, after the vote, the Finance Minister stated that an unjust salary system had been set right.

He said that the Ministry of Finance take third place as far as the salary system was concerned, that salaries would be decent and employees would no longer depend on bonuses, "their bosses will no longer grant these rights at will and employees won’t be humiliated and manipulated any more".

Translated by: Gabriela Lungu and Raluca Mizdrea
MA Students, MTTLC, Bucharest University