Romanian Teachers Strike for Salary Increases and Government Accountability

They demand that the salary increase be found in the text of the Emergency Ordinance issued by the Government, not only in the Memorandum of its substantiation, which has no force of law. “This attitude of the Romanian Government is interpreted as a failure of the Executive to apply the principle mentioned above in the new salary law”, the joint message signed by Simion Hăncescu and Marius Nistor states.

The trade unionists also pointed out that the teachers on strike “are also dissatisfied with the Government’s promise to apply the hypothetical salary scale for education in a maximum of three years” and demanded that this period be shortened.

Even President Klaus Iohannis did not escape the criticism of the trade unionists, after the head of state said “How dare someone endanger the national exams?”, stating that the teachers “got everything they asked for”.

“Here, gentlemen politicians, Mr. President, is the problem. You have not convinced us that after the strike is over you will really invest in this area. And the first example in this sense is that you did not assume through a normative act that, with the appearance of the new salary law, the salary of the beginning teacher will be at least equal to the average salary in the economy”, say the two trade unions in Education.

“Stop scolding us, stop sending us to classes! Change your speech and assume that education will be, starting today, a national priority! And not only for us, the employees in the system, but also for the more than 3,000,000 students behind whom you are hiding and whom you are trying, through statements, to turn against us!”, the two union leaders also sent .

What are the teachers’ requests?

At the negotiations held on May 25 with the representatives of the Government, the trade unionists demanded:

• Salary increase of 25%, on average, until the entry into force of the Single Salary Law;
• Issuance of a GEO guaranteeing that, in the new salary law, the salary of the beginning teacher is equal to at least the average gross salary for the economy, which is 6,789 lei, i.e. 4,000 lei net.

On June 1, the Government led by Nicolae Ciucă issued an Emergency Ordinance by which it was announced that the salary of the teaching staff will increase by 1,000 gross lei per month, and of the non-teaching staff by 400 gross lei per month.

But the trade unionists accused that in the GEO adopted by the government on June 1, their main demand does not appear, more precisely the guarantee that in the new salary scale the debutant teacher will start from the average gross salary for the economy.

On June 2, the spokesperson of the Government, Dan Cărbunaru, responded to the accusations. He conveyed in a statement that this guarantee was made in the explanatory memorandum. But this does not have the force of law, stated the trade unionists, who announced that the strike in Education, which began on May 22, continues.

The president of the Federation of Education Trade Unions, Marius Nistor, recently told Libertatea that we can talk about postponing the exams, if the governors do not materialize their promises through the GEO.

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