Judges, police workers resist Romanian Govt. 's plans to curb their special status

The bill drafted by the ruling coalition to curb the benefits of "special pension" systems in selected budgetary sectors prompted negative reactions from the recipients seeing their privileges at risk.

The bill is supposed to make the "special pensions" system sustainable and diminish its pressure on the public budget, in line with Romania's commitments inked in the national implementation of the Resilience facility PNRR.

However, the magistrates warned of protests if their retirement age is increased and the pension benefits are capped.

"It is inadmissible and deeply irresponsible for such an abrupt and irrational reform to be imposed under the current conditions of personnel shortage, a crisis generated by the acute instability of the status of judges. That is why, absolutely legitimately, we have firmly demanded that the so-called reform be stopped, as well as that any possible modification of the retirement conditions should produce effects exclusively with regard to the judges recruited under the new regulations that must, imperatively, be correlated with the pace of improvement of the working conditions", said judge Dana Gîrbovan, president of the Cluj Court of Appeal, quoted by Stiridecluj.ro.

At the same time, the police workers advocate for the "military" pensions (including those of the police workers and intelligence services employees) should not be subject of the reform, Bursa.ro reported.

(Photo source: Chernetskaya/Dreamstime.com)