Romania’s centrist parties fail to reach consensus on public sector wage law

Romania’s centrist parliamentary parties failed to reach an agreement on the draft unitary wage law for public sector employees during talks convened by president Nicușor Dan on August 11, according to sources cited by G4Media.

The deadlock puts at risk EUR 771 million in grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), as the legislation is a milestone that must be adopted by August 31.

The talks brought together president Dan and the leaders of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union (USR) and Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), amid disagreements over the reform of public sector pay.

Formally, a major obstacle is the financial impact of demands made by trade unions, which are supported by the PSD, according to the cited sources. Separately, analysts argue that a more transparent and consistent framework for remuneration across the public sector could reduce the influence of trade unions, political leaders and senior public officials over discretionary bonuses and other supplements that have contributed to the complexity of the current pay structure.

The parties are continuing negotiations in an effort to find a formula that would allow the milestone to be completed by the deadline.

One option under discussion is to submit the draft law to Parliament next week or, at the latest, within two weeks, leaving limited time for its adoption before August 31.

The negotiations follow repeated warnings from the government that the deadline for completing the RRF milestone is approaching. Interim Labour Minister Dragoș Pîslaru said on August 10 that this was the final week in which a political agreement could be reached in time for the reform to be adopted and promulgated by the end of August.

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