The Cartel Alfa trade union confederation, in an open letter addressed to the Romanian government, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolac and the Romanian Parliament, demands action to “impose a legal obligation on fund administrators to provide a minimum return on accumulated assets that exceeds the rate of inflation.” course”, writes news .ro.

This minimum return would compensate for the reduction of the pension from level I.” The request is formulated in the context in which trade unionists claim that employees who have contributions to the second level of pensions “due to the provisions and future rules of application of the new pension law, will have a proportionally reduced point, according to the new calculation formula.”

“We again draw attention to the following, from our point of view, completely abnormal aspects of the private mandatory pension system: The National Pension House is obliged to calculate accounts up to the second level even for people whose employers have NOT transferred the contribution to the pension (CAS) ; This harms the state pension system (level I); Those who contribute to Level II, according to the provisions and future rules of application of the new pension legislation, will have their score proportionally reduced according to the new calculation formula. Pension from Level 2 is called “additional pension”.

However, it is in no way “additional” unless there is a minimum guarantee that it will be greater than or at least equal to the part by which the state pension is reduced (almost a quarter). On the contrary, the evidence suggests that it will be at a lower level than what is “lost” from the social system. Therefore, it is necessary to impose a legal obligation on fund administrators to provide a minimum return on accumulated assets, higher than the level of inflation, which compensates for the reduction of the pension from the first level, and not in the case of their additional taxation, “said in the open letter of CNS Cartel Alfa to the government and parliament.

Trade unionists draw attention to the fact that 15 years after the establishment of level II pensions, the Romanian Parliament has not adopted a law establishing the method of calculation and assignment of level II pensions, although Law 411/2004 provided for the obligation of the legislative body as such a normative act to adopt within three years from the date of entry into force of the system.

“Romanians are obliged to make contributions according to the principle of “a bear’s coat from the forest”, without offering them any guarantee regarding the pension promised by law. Moreover, it is widely believed that the companies that collect and manage the money from the contributions should not also undertake the payment of Tier II pensions, that is, they should be other companies with other commissions from the income collected by the efforts, over the years, of the taxpayers; In view of all this, the National Confederation of Trade Unions “Cartel ALFA” requests to start consultations with all subjects of public life with the aim of finalizing and properly regulating the non-state pension system”, the trade unions also convey to the bodies of executive and legislative power.

In the cited document, the unions also state that both the public pension level and the private pension level II “have an exclusively social purpose”, and in this context they state that “all proposed measures and regulations must take into account this priority objective of truly working for the good taxpayers, and Tier II is a welfare system, not (just) a mechanism by which private corporations make huge profits using citizens’ money.”

Cartel Afla also states that “neither of the two mandatory pension systems is perfect”.

Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku told a government meeting on Wednesday that he wanted to clear up from the start any speculation about hidden intentions of the state related to the 2nd level of pensions, clarifying that there is none, and asked “Mr. with the USR must answer for a billion from vaccines and other hundreds of millions of euros stolen during the pandemic. “I ask Minister Bolosh to propose the solution he deems necessary to clarify the texts of the Fiscal Code, which have been used to leave room for speculation,” Čolaku said.

“I want to clarify from the outset any speculation about the hidden intentions of the state regarding the 2nd level of pensions. There is no such thing! Two months ago, we were all accused of nationalizing it, now we will retax it. No one has such a plan. In addition, I want to ask the gentlemen from USR to answer for the billion from the vaccines and for the other hundreds of millions of euros stolen during the pandemic, and to stop manipulating fake news in the press, such as this one, that the Romanian government would like to raise taxes or nationalize the II pillar to cover the news with such news,” said the prime minister.