Meridian union: Romania cannot afford freezing workers' wages, abandon economic, social convergence goal

Romania cannot afford freezing workers' wages and abandon the goal of economic and social convergence with developed states in the European Union, say representatives of the Meridian National Trade Union Confederation, dissatisfied with the measures taken by the Romanian Government "that will determine the living and working conditions of workers in 2021". "We have strong restrictions on public gatherings and legal protests of employees, but the Romanian Government is in a hurry to adopt normative acts that will determine the living and working conditions of workers in 2021. The minimum gross wage guaranteed in payment could not be adopted by the consensus of the social partners", say the Meridian trade unionists. According to the quoted source, the trade unions requested the increase of the minimum wage from 2,230 lei, as it is at present, to 2,400 lei for 2021, while the employers' organizations requested its freezing or at most an increase in relation to the inflation rate. In this context, the Romanian Government proposed that the value of the minimum gross for 2021 be 2,300 lei. In this context, the Meridian National Trade Union Confederation, through its representatives in the social dialogue process at the Ministry of Public Finance or the Economic and Social Council, rejected the current form of the above-mentioned legislative bill, "considering that measures with social impact do nothing else than to throw the effects of the crisis on the backs of employees and pensioners, in the context in which all the electoral promises of increases are postponed by a year, while the prices are rising freely". AGERPRES (RO - author: Mariana Nica, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi)