The indicative term for the adoption by the Government of the draft law on wages in the public sector is 15 October, Labour Minister Rovana Plumb says.
‘We are trying to finalise the draft by then’, the minister told HotNews.ro.
The Government needs to adopt the bill as soon as possible, to allow for enough time for debates in Parliament so that it can be adopted and sent for promulgation by the end of the year, as PM Victor Ponta promised.
‘The Government will keep all its promises made in the agreement with the labour unions and we will make sure the new wage law will keep growing salaries in 2015 and in the following years’, Victor Ponta wrote on Facebook.
Prime-Minister Victor Ponta said on Monday that the draft wage law applicable to the public system would be tabled in Parliament where it should undergo debating and that he would not pass an ordinance in the matter.
‘It cannot be enforced before it’s sent to Parliament, debated on and approved by Parliament and then promulgated by the president. There is no other way. We do not intend to pass an emergency ordinance. That would be a mistake, as it is such a complex law that poses so many issues. It would be a mistake for me to claim we made it perfectly and nothing else is needed. I believe a debate is needed in Parliament. I cannot tell you how long the debate in Parliament will take, how soon the president promulgates it, because now, after the surprise with the Fiscal Code, I am not sure he will promulgate it or not’, Ponta said at the Palace of Parliament.
Asked if there would be pay rises by 25% in the entire public sector, according to a recent rumour, Ponta answered: ‘I wish, but no’.
‘Any pay rise must be within sustainability limits. We don’t want to raise salaries now and then, who knows, need to cut them later on, as Basescu did. What we will propose will be based just on existing resources. I want to make a clarification: I have never said nor will I say that we can increase the wages for everybody form day one, according to the law. There are stages spanning three or four years’, explained the premier.
The negotiations with the trade unions on the bill are now in difficulty, as every professional category wants the highest possible rise.
The law could become effective even during the first half of 2016, but it is crucial that it should be enforced at least six months before the parliamentary election. According to the law on fiscal responsibility, normative acts concerning salary or pension rises may not be promoted less than 180 days before the expiry of the term of the Government.
At the beginning of September, the interim President of PSD, Liviu Dragnea, said the draft law on the wages in the public sector would be submitted to the Government by 1 October and then to Parliament for debates and adoption, by 15 October.
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