Union activists, who are part of the three major education federations, have started collecting signatures to initiate a general strike after the government announced spending cuts on staff and vocational training and increased staff shortages. The Government will be picketed on April 25 and 26, and a protest march will be held on May 10.

Teachers’ unions are protesting in front of the GovernmentPhoto: Facebook – FSLI

“The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education, the Federation of Trade Unions in Education “Spiru Haret” and the National Federation of Trade Unions “Alma Mater” announce the Romanian Government and the Parliament to start a referendum to collect signatures. to provoke a general strike,” said a press release from Saturday signed by the three unions.

The form of protest came after the executive announced that it “intends to take a decision with an additional negative impact on education workers,” according to the quoted source.

Complaints of education trade unions:

  • “Staff costs are limited to the level of 2022 – this is impossible to achieve in the education system, because the salary of teachers increases with the transition to higher teacher education / new contribution to the length of service;
  • support and non-teaching staff are prohibited from receiving their basic salary according to Law 153/2017, contrary to the promises made by PSD and PNL presidents two weeks ago;
  • the shortage of personnel is aggravated by: the ban on the accumulation of pensions with wages and the blocking of tenders for filling vacant positions;
  • professional training (necessary for establishing a teaching career) is blocked.
  • “We note that before the start of the general strike of the FSLI, the Spiru Kharet Trade Union and the Alma Mater Federal Tax Service will again picket the Government on April 25 and 26, and on May 10 they will organize a protest march where more than 15,000 trade union members are expected.”

What are their claims:

  • a) solving the problem of full application of the provisions of the Framework Law No. 153/2017 for all categories of education workers, so that they receive the basic salary provided for by this law;
  • b) determination of ways to increase the income of education workers;
  • c) emergency adoption of standards for non-teaching and auxiliary teaching staff, taking into account that the applicable standards have been adopted since 1998;
  • d) the application of normative legal acts regarding the establishment of increases in working conditions, since education workers are the only categories of state employees who are not granted these increases;
  • e) in the new law on wages, the proposed grid should place education workers at a higher level than the current one in the hierarchy of budgetary functions, in relation to the social importance of the performed activity;
  • f) removing the current anomalies in the remuneration of those in management, leadership and control positions, given that, after their incomes have remained unchanged for the past four years, they have been found to be lower than those in executive positions;
  • g) establishment by law of the rule of annual indexation of employees’ wages from budget funds to the level of inflation;
  • h) supplemental payment of personnel of educational institutions/institutions assigned to project teams financed from non-refundable European funds;
  • i) payment of additional hours performed by auxiliary teaching and non-teaching staff. (News.ro)