Romanian teachers threaten with protests this fall

The National College of Leaders of the Federation of Free Trade Unions of Education (FSLI) decided to start organizing protests beginning October 2 if the Government does not accept the conclusion of a written agreement through which it pledges to solve several problems of the employees in education. The union members claim that wage increases are calculated based on the base salaries of last year, which leads to lower wage earnings, according to a press release from FSLI. Specifically, employees in education lose, on average, over 3% of the gross income. “We are also unhappy with the fact that the Executive failed to include in the Budget Law for 2017 the amounts needed to pay court judgments, in accordance with the legal provisions of rescheduling the payment of these sentences. On average, each employee in education should recover about RON 5,000,” reads the press release. The union members are also dissatisfied with the small net wage growth in 2018 compared to the rises in gross wages, as a consequence of higher employee contributions to the state. “Following calculations made by FSLI and later recognized by the finance minister and the minister of labor, if the gross wage increases by 50%, in reality each employee in education will see a maximum growth of 25%.” Thus, FSLI asks the Romanian Government to start negotiations and conclude a written agreement by September 25, 2017, to resolve these requests. Otherwise, FSLI will start organizing protests from October 2. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com