Romanian Government may challenge wage increase law at the Constitutional Court

The Government may challenge the law that sets wages in the public sector at the Constitutional Court if the Parliament approves the law with the amendments discussed by the Chamber of Deputies earlier this week, economy minister Costin Borc said yesterday in a meeting with the members of the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce (AHK). “Until now the Government has challenged almost all the projects that provide increases in spending without a budgetary base,” Borc told the German investors, reports local Mediafax. Borc also said that the pay law didn’t include any mention of the financial sources that would support the measures. Mentioning only the state budget as a financing source is not a serious approach. Finance minister Anca Dragu also said that the pay law lacks mentions about the financing sources. She explained that according to the fiscal-budget law, approved in 2010, it is not possible to carry out wage increases 180 days before the elections. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) came up with several amendments to the law that sets the wages for employees in the public sector which increase the salaries and bonuses for some categories of employees. PSD claims that these increases are justified by Romania’s high economic growth while the National Liberal Party (PNL) claims that PSD wants to buy votes before the elections. The Government opposes these increases saying that they would increase Romania’s budget expenses by some EUR 1 billion and would lead to higher public deficit. Politicians quarrel over salary increases before elections in Romania editor@romania-insider.com