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| CONTROVERSIES RAISED BY AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ORDINANCE 16/01/2009 |
| (2009-01-16) |
| Last updated: 2009-01-19 12:16 EET |
An emergency ordinance which no longer allows pensioners to return on the payroll of public institutions was ruled down as unconstitutional on Thursday.
“The Constitutional Court has ruled: debauchery on public money continues” reads the daily CURENTUL, after Court magistrates ruled that the government emergency ordinance forbidding pensioners to receive wages from public institutions, was unconstitutional. The decision came as no surprise to legal experts, who had previously warned that the ordinance infringed on the fundamental rights to work and to get a pension, both granted by the Constitution. Moreover, the Ombudsman, who had filed the appeal, stated that both salary and pension are private property, and the interdiction to cumulate them is the equivalent of expropriation. To the common beneficiaries of the verdict – physicians, actors, teachers, foster careers, retired and then rehired, though never on fabulous salaries – the decision was welcome.
To the Ombudsman and four of the members of the court, the decision is morally embarrassing, and legally a conflict of interests, because they are beneficiaries of the pension – salary plurality themselves, and in their case the amounts are quite significant. As for the left-of-centre Government, which claims that the ordinance targeted the grand pooh-bas in justice, defence, internal affairs or secret services, who cash in thousands of Euro every month in spite of the financial crisis, the rejection of the ordinance is a lost battle. But PM Emil Boc, leader of the pro-presidential Democratic Liberal Party, is determined to carry on:
“I have discussed the matter with our partners from the Social Democratic Party and we are all determined to carry on the battle against luxury retirement allowances, huge budget salaries and the misuse of public money. As long as I am the Prime Minister, I will not have such debauchery on public money in Romania".
Newspapers have already announced that 'the government is preparing a new restrictive measure, which will give a hard blow to state employees that hold several jobs.” Therefore, Labour Minister Marian Sarbu is working on a law stipulating that employees who get two or several salaries from the state will have to choose just one. Obviously, a new Pandora's box will thus be opened, and the consequences will be tragic-comic. On the one hand, trade unionists in the education sector are warning that 'universities cannot hire just anybody, that is why the solution of plurality of jobs is accepted.' On the other hand, Public Policy expert Adrian Moraru, quoted by the daily Romania Libera, believes that 'the new measure could leave the country without spies', because covert agents get two salaries, one from the secret service they serve, and the other from the ministry, city hall or embassy they officially work for.
Political analyst Cristian Parvulescu believes that by using austerity as an argument, 'the government attempted an image coup: the fight against greed' but 'scored yet another defeat'. The idea is shared by the daily Adevarul, which ironically headlines “Boc and the maternal assistants' conspiracy”, accusing the Prime Minister that, 'one month into his term in office, he is unable to give up electoral rhetoric, because 'he sees himself as being surrounded by enemies, by plotters who have managed to block the ordinance'. And the newspaper concludes: “an even superficial analysis would have easily revealed its flaws and would have helped him make a decision without hitting the most disadvantaged categories while trying to prove that this is how social justice is being done.'
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