Ion Chicu
Chicu told reporters that the PAS party’s argument—which was used to explain why salaries were not indexed on January 1 — was false.
“According to our initial assessments, this is not a new labor compensation law, as they claimed, but rather amendments to the existing law. These changes are not revolutionary enough to allow PAS to justify the fact that they did not raise wages in the public sector on January 1. For the first time in eight years, wages for teachers, healthcare workers, and others were not raised. We were told that the increase would take place with the adoption of a new law on wages. And here it is, this “new law” — in essence, it is an amendment to several articles and an expansion of the pay scale, which effectively lowers the coefficients across the entire scale, from the first to the 135th pay grade,” the deputy stated.
Chicu emphasized that if the authorities do not revise the base value through amendments to the state budget law, the proposed changes could theoretically lead to lower salaries.
“To understand whether salaries will be increased starting September 1, we need to wait for another bill — amendments to the state budget law—since that is where the base values are set. If they are not changed, salaries will decrease, as every multiplier will be reduced — including those for the president and the speaker of parliament. It is clear that they will submit amendments to the budget, and then every employee — whether a teacher, a cultural worker, or a member of parliament — will understand what is happening to their salary,” explained Ion Chicu.
As a reminder, the government has published a draft law on reforming the public sector pay system. According to the document, the reform is based on four main objectives: ensuring comparable pay for similar positions, increasing competitiveness relative to the private sector, incentivizing professional activity, and maintaining budgetary discipline.
