Romanian labor minister: New public wage ordinance ready by June 1

The new ordinance that updates the public employees’ wages could be drafted by May 15 and should be publicly debated by June 1 when the Government will adopt it, labor minister Dragos Pislaru announced on Friday. He added that the ordinance would correct some of the imbalances in the public wage policy. “The bonuses and allowances will remain as they are. We are trying to focus on the base salaries,” Pislaru explained. He also pointed out that the Government had limited resources for wage increases. “We are talking about a sum that can’t solve all the system’s inequities and we all have to be aware of this. It’s a process that can’t make everyone happy,” he said. Some 300,000 to 500,000 public employees may benefit from the salary increases, the minister estimates. The Government has been trying to come up with a draft ordinance to increase public wages, but so far all the negotiations with the unions have failed. This also led to the first resignation in the cabinet led by Dacian Ciolos. Labor minister Ana Costea resigned on April 14 and was replaced with Dragos Pislaru, the PM’s economic adviser. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Gov.ro)