RO Constitutional Court rules against COVID-19 bonuses for school teachers

Romania's Constitutional Court (CCR) reportedly accepted the Government's objection against the draft law envisaging special bonuses for all employees in the education system to compensate for the risks generated by their work during the coronavirus pandemic, G4media.ro reported.

The monthly bonus was set at RON 2,000 (EUR 400) for teachers and RON 1,500 (EUR 300) for other personnel and was supposed to cover the state of emergency and alert period as declared by the Government.

The average net wage in the education system was RON 3,500 (EUR 700) as of September, while the gross wage was RON 6,000 (EUR 1,200).

The bonus as provisioned by the law would not be subject to social security or health insurance contributions.

The bill was promoted by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and passed by lawmakers in September.

The impact on the budget for 2020 was estimated by the authors of the bill at RON 500 million (just over EUR 100 mln).

PSD argued that the expenditures could be financed from the European Union's budget (just like the bonuses paid to the personnel in the medical system).

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)