Romanian prosecutors to challenge payroll law at the Constitutional Court

Romania’s general prosecutor Augustin Lazar sent letters to the Presidency, High Court of Cassation and Justice, and the Ombudsman asking them to challenge the recently adopted payroll law at the Constitutional Court. The prosecutors are unhappy that the new law, which sets the salaries of all public employees in Romania, provides lower salaries for prosecutors compared to judges of the same seniority. Lazar argues that the Constitutional Court’s decisions show that prosecutors and judges have the same constitutional status of magistrates, which is why they should have the same financial status as well. When presenting the new payroll law, the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) explained that judges should be better paid than prosecutors to confirm their higher status. The PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said yesterday that he was disappointed with the possibility of the payroll law to be challenged at the Constitutional Court, which may delay its enforcement and the salary increases in the public sector. He thinks that the prosecutors’ action is “profoundly incorrect,” given that the new law also increases the prosecutors’ salaries, reports local Mediafax. The law was voted by the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday and needs to be signed by President Klaus Iohannis. It provides increases for all public-sector employees starting January 1, 2018. editor@romania-insider.com