Among the first measures of austerity, adopted by the coalition to cover the deficit of revenues to the state budget, is the termination of employment in the state. According to Labor Minister Marius Budai, there will also be regions that will be exempted.

Leaders of the coalition negotiating the resolution, which the government wants to save the budget, decided on Monday that there will be no pay cuts, but also no more jobs in the state.

Labor Minister Marius Budai said on Tuesday, responding to questions from reporters to clarify this information coming from sources, that there will also be exceptions, that is, areas where hiring can still be done.

• “Exceptions will be made for education and health care systems, which are extremely important. These will be exceptions.
• And the Ministry of Labor will have exceptions, for example, for people with disabilities. If a person with disabilities needs a personal assistant, we will not block their access to care, and they will be able to hire that assistant,” Budai said.

“We are not talking about freezing salaries in the state”

He also stated that there is no question of freezing state salaries:

• “We are not talking about freezing state salaries. Salaries have been increased, it is about non-interference with the Law on wages. In order to carry out this impact analysis, we need to not discuss the law for several months.”

And PSD leader Marcel Cholaku said on Tuesday that “there was never any discussion” about freezing wages.

In relation to the proposal for excessive taxation of budget owners who accumulate pensions from wages and incomes that exceed the income of the President of Romania, proposals that would be made by the leader of his party, Marcel Colacu, the Minister of Labor claimed that he was not aware of such a discussion and did not would take part in Monday’s negotiations in the coalition: “So far no one has discussed retaxation. I don’t know why we’re in this equation.”

What austerity measures did the Coalition propose?

Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke, together with Marcel Çolaku and Kelemen Hunor, decided to stop public work and freeze salaries until the adoption of a new salary law.

Also, in PSD-PNL-UDMR discussions, it was agreed to reduce spending on goods and services by 10%. As for the ban on the accumulation of a salary pension, the leaders of the Coalition decided that it could not be done by an emergency resolution, because according to some political sources it was unconstitutional. The decision will be made by law.

Leaders of PSD, PNL and UDMR met on Monday in the Government to discuss measures to save money in the budget.

Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke has asked not to cut wages in any way and not to raise wages until a new wage law is passed, quoted sources said.

Prior to the meeting at Victoria Palace, official sources had said that the accrual of the salary pension would be prohibited only under the special component of the pension.

Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke said last week in Fokshan that he had asked ministers to present him with a solution to cut budget spending, but ruled out cuts in public sector salaries or investment.

The problem of reducing spending by 20 billion lei arose because the budget for 2023 was poorly drawn up, regardless of whether the authorities (government) want to admit it or not.