| UNIONS AND OPPOSITION CRITICISE GOVERNMENTAL MEASURES 12/08/2009 |
| (2009-08-12) |
| Last updated: 2009-08-13 12:27 EET |
The austerity measures agreed upon by the Romanian government and the representatives of the IMF, who came to Romania on an economic assessment mission, have put a time bomb under both trade unions and opposition parties.
The measures are aimed at significantly cutting down on budget expenditure. Therefore, starting September, for a three month period, all the 1.4 billion state employees will take turns to go on a 10 day unpaid leave.
According to the Romanian Foreign Minister Gheorghe Pogea, the decision will help save 350 million Euro. Other measures envisaged are replacing extra hours with days off, cancelling bonuses or reducing the working hours from 8 to 6. Both trade unions and the opposition disagree with the government's decision to force state employees into unpaid leaves.
The leader of the Sed Lex Trade Union, Vasile Marica, has warned that they will take the matter to court if the measure is enforced, given that it will bring about pension cuts. The decision to compensate extra hours is not fair, because this should only be done at the employer's, not the employee's request, believes the head of the Cartel Alfa trade union confederation, Bogdan Hossu.
In turn, vice-president of the opposition National Liberal Party, Mariana Campeanu, says these measures are fresh evidence of the government's lack of responsibility, because it sacrifices the population to keep the country afloat till after the presidential elections due this autumn.
The Bucharest media have given wide coverage to this issue. “The largest collective holiday in history: 210 thousand state employees go home every week” reads the daily Ziarul Financiar, which believes that the government, now cut to the bone, is compelled to implement the harshest reform of the state apparatus.
In turn, the daily Gandul reads that the government has committed itself to drastically downsizing the staff in the public sector, but only after the presidential elections.
But why these unpopular measures? Because, said Jeffrey Franks, the head of the IMF mission to Bucharest, the country is in deep recession, and the IMF's prognosis indicates an economic downturn of 8 – 8.5% by the end of the year, twice as much as initially estimated. To overcome the crisis, Romania has concluded with the IMF a 2-year loan agreement, worth some 13 billion Euros.
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again