Romania’s Finance Ministry workers stage massive protest over draft public sector wage bill

Around 22,000 employees of the Ministry of Finance, including the staff of the tax administration agency ANAF, started a spontaneous protest on Monday morning. The trade unions said that the wages will go down according to the latest version of the public sector wage draft bill, which is currently debated in Parliament.

“The protest generated by the cut of salaries were started by employees and can extend on an undetermined period, which can lead to the freezing of the collection activity and of the relation with taxpayers,” said The National Union of Finance Trade Unions.

The unions claimed that the employees of the Ministry of Finance need to have higher wages because they are not entitled to bonuses and can’t have a second job to earn extra income.

The trade unions representing customs employees joined the protest and said they will check each vehicle that wants to enter or exit Romania.

“There will be controls on all means of transportation, which will impede traffic and might even block the borders of Romania,” said the Unirea Customs Union. The organization said that the reduction of their salaries starting next year in “unacceptable.”

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The associations added that the government should hike the wages for the 22,000 employees that are protesting instead of paying wages of RON 10,000 monthly for 35,000 tax consultants. The unions are referring to the plans of the government to pay consultants that will help households to submit their yearly tax returns.

However, the household tax is still under negotiations and it’s still early to say how it will be applied eventually.