The Ministry of Education announced on Monday that they are working on regulations that will allow non-teaching staff to be paid according to statutory grids, which would mean a 9% increase. Incentives will also be provided to novice teachers and teachers from disadvantaged areas. As a reminder, a general strike has been going on since Monday in all schools in Romania where there are members of trade unions. This is the first strike in education in 18 years and the third large-scale strike in the last 30 years.

The Ministry of Education announced on Monday that following Sunday’s discussions with the government, together with the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Investment, steps have been taken to develop regulations that will create the legal framework for:

• the salary of all non-teaching staff in public education at the level of grids provided for by the Framework Law no. 153/2017 on remuneration of personnel from state funds, with the following changes and additions, for 2022.
• According to the analysis of the Ministry of Education, this means a salary increase of about 9% and a budget impact estimated at 90 million lei by the end of the calendar year for almost 55,000 beneficiaries of pre-university education and 10,000 of higher education;
• providing a bonus to novice teachers;
• material encouragement of teachers assigned to educational units in disadvantaged areas.
• “We note that providing financial incentives for teachers working in educational institutions in disadvantaged areas is one of the goals contained in the draft law on pre-university education, which is currently being voted on in the plenary session of the Romanian Senate.
• We emphasize once again that education is a national priority for the parties of the current ruling coalition,” the Ministry of Education claims.

It will be recalled that the education unions started a general strike in schools on Monday after negotiations with the government failed to reach an agreement on Sunday. Unions say a general strike in education will continue until they receive a “certain solution” from the Government on pay demands. The last general strike in education took place 18 years ago and lasted three weeks.

The unions want a beginner teacher to have a salary of 4,000 lei, and a teacher at the end of his career to receive 7,000 lei.

What salaries are offered by trade unions for teachers: how much should a newbie get, how much should a graduate get

The president of the Federation of Education Trade Unions “Spiru Haret” Marius Nistor states that beginning teachers should have a salary equivalent to the average salary in the economy, while the net salary of a teacher at the end of his career should reach almost 7,000 lei every month.

Answering a question on Sunday evening on B1 TV, what is the salary of education workers, Marius Nistor gave specific examples: a maximum of 2,000 lei for non-teaching staff (nurses, cooks, nurses, firefighters), 2,580 lei for the salary of a debutante teacher, to which an allowance is added for meals, reaching approximately 2,700 lei, almost 3,800 lei for a teacher with a teaching degree I and 25 years of experience, and 4,200 – 4,500 lei net for a late-career teacher.

“When the tariff plan was discussed at the level of the Ministry of Education, we started from the point of reference: the salary of a novice with a higher education should be equivalent to the average salary in the economy. What does this mean in pure numbers for a newbie? This will reach almost 4000 lei net from 2500-2700 lei. This will be the starting salary. And, categorically, you are coming to the end of your career, there is progressive growth, colleagues who would leave the system would reach somewhere around 6,900-7,000 lei in net salary. These are the salaries,” said Marius Nistor, answering questions about what teachers’ salaries will be.

About encouragement: “We don’t need it, we don’t receive social assistance”

The president of the Federation of Trade Unions “Spiru Kharet” also reported that teachers categorically rejected the Government’s proposal to “encourage” debutante teachers and those working in disadvantaged areas, stressing that teachers do not receive social assistance.

“There was such a proposal from the governors, some incentives for novice teachers and our colleagues who worked in a social environment or in a more unfavorable environment, that is, isolated areas, with certain problems. Without offense, the reaction of our colleagues in the territory was very clear: we do not need this, we do not have social assistance, this is not what we are asking for now. (…) We are not on social assistance, we are busy in education. We do not accept this attitude. This is the reaction of most of our colleagues from the region,” added Marius Nistor.

Requirements of trade unions in education:

• “Increasing the salaries of education workers, in accordance with the social significance of the work performed, based on the principle that the salary of a novice teacher should be no less than the average salary in the economy, the salary of the entire teaching staff, should be implemented gradually, in the report on the position, training , seniority and teaching degree;
• Establishing the rule of annual indexation of employees’ wages from budget funds to the level of inflation;
• Payment of additional hours performed by auxiliary teaching and non-teaching staff;
• Provision of allowances for working conditions for education workers;
• provision of rights provided for by current legislation and collective labor agreements (travel allowance, payment of work allowance, additional leave, monetary compensation for unused leave, etc.);
• Annual increase in investment in education, improvement of the material base and infrastructure;
• Abandoning the EduSal program and replacing it with a computerized payroll program managed and administered by the Ministry of Education.”