Employees in education to protest on Thursday at gov't headquarters over salary law not being enforced

The three trade unions in education organize protests on Thursday in front of the Government headquarters and in front of the PSD (Social Democratic Party) and PNL (National Liberal Party) headquarters, against the fact that the Executive did not increase their salaries according to Law No. 153/2017, reads a press release of the trade unions on Wednesday, Agerpres reports.

The protests are organized by the Federation of Free Trade Unions (FSLI), the Federation of Education Trade Unions (ESF) "Spiru Haret" and the National Trade Union Federation "Alma Mater," which represent over 300,000 employees in education.

"We remind the representatives of the Romanian Government and the political parties that the teaching staff should have benefited from the salaries provided by the Law No. 153/2017 starting with September 2020. The insignificant increase of only 4pct applied as of January 1, 2022, which means an increase of the teaching staff's income by approximately 65 lei net, has caused a state of general dissatisfaction among the employees in education," it is mentioned in the press release of the three trade union organizations.

The unions also point out that more than 30,000 non-teaching staff in education benefit from the country's minimum gross salary guaranteed in payment, although, since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, these employees have been involved in some extra types of activities, which have nothing to do with the position held.

"In addition, the education staff is the only category of public employees who do not benefit from bonuses for working conditions, because in recent years the government's policy in the field of pay has been to cap the amount of bonuses at the level before the entry into force of the Law No. 153/2017, which made GD No. 34/2018 and GD No. 569/2017 inapplicable," the same press release states.

According to this source, the three trade union federations are holding a referendum to decide whether they should have a strike at this point in the education system or not.