Government considers increasing public workers’ wages but no social contributions cuts

Romania’s government and the central bank are working on a new set of measures to boost domestic consumption, including possible salary increases in the public sector, the executive’s spokesman Dan Suciu said this Friday, according to Mediafax.

“A pick up in consumption is necessary for sustainable economic growth and in order to achieve this we are analyzing the economic measures that can be taken,” said Suciu at the end of a meeting between Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and central bank governor Mugur Isarescu.

Asked if it would be possible to increase the salaries of state workers and reduce the level of the social contributions at the same time, the government official said that this possibility will be analyzed in the context of economic results for Q1. He noted that the government program considers only possible salary increases for public workers – if the economy will allow it – but doesn’t include any social security contribution reductions.

President Traian Basescu said this Wednesday during a speech in the Parliament that the ruling coalition has the duty to restore the salaries of public workers. In the summer of 2010 the government cut the salaries of all state workers by 25 percent and hiked the VAT from 19 percent to 24 percent.

The law of fiscal responsibility, however, prohibits any salary increases in the public sector six months before elections. Suciu commented that “in legal terms” such a measure would be considered a salary restoration rather than an increase.

Read more about

Air Show in Bucharest on Saturday for Aviation Day: dozens of military aircraft to fly over Aviatorilor Square

read more

Simona Bazavan