DefMin Fifor: MApN staff to get a pay rise of about 3pct after pay law is applied

Defence Minister Mihai Fifor said on Friday that pay will increase by 3 percent for the staff of Defence Ministry following the application of the uniform public pay law.

"Wages at the level of the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) are paid on the 15th of each month, at which time all the military units draw their payrolls. The ministry's Finance Department has run simulations of the application of the new pay law that have showed the pay rise for the MApN staff is about 3 percent. (...) We are not expecting any wages going down, but if they are, we are certainly prepared to step in for checks to identify where such decreases may occur, and I would like to point out that potential decreases do not stem from the application of the law but from certain situations related to either the failure to meet requirements for getting certain benefits previously drawn up to a point, or the statutory ceiling being exceeded for the staff remunerated under the rules of other occupational families such as justice, healthcare and education," Fifor said in a press statement give at MApN.

He said that the monthly wages of soldiers are made up of a fixed part - the function, rank and gradation pay and, when applicable, the command pay - and variable part - supplements, compensations, bonuses, prizes and others.

The minister said that the net wage income of soldiers increased by 54 percent in January 2018 from December 2016, the net wage income in the case of non-commissioned officers advanced 45.7 percent, while Lieutenant-Colonels got a 45.4-percent rise.

Fifor mentioned that the monthly wage income is rounded up by food subsidies to the tune of 1,000 lei a month.

"There have not been any deep-going simulations of the income of civilian and contractual staff and civil servants, but from talks with main employers it has emerged that we should be expecting pay rises at their levels as well," Fifor said.

He added that MApN has not included in this year's budget the holiday vouchers amounting to 1,450 lei per person for the ministry's staff. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Rodica State)