Cut bonuses arouse the anger of public sector workers

• The activity of public finance, paralyzed by spontaneous protests all over the country, a few days before the visit of the IMF

• Workers in the Ministry of Finance, who after the cut of their performance bonuses have become the lowest paid workers in the public sector, are demanding their rights

Public sector workers are taking their protests from the street, to the hallways of their workplaces, just six days before the mission of the IMF returns to Bucharest to assess the state of Romania"s economy.

The activity of the Ministry of Public Finance and of some of the tax depatrments across Romania was brought to a halt yesterday, by the spontaneous protests staged by their employees inside their headquarters, as they were angry at the elimination of the salary bonuses, which in some cases meant a 50% drop in income, union leaders say.

At the central headquarters of the Ministry of Public Finance, around 200 public sector workers left their offices and stood into the hallways, shouting "Thieves!" at their bosses, who worked in the same building and were the ones who made the decision to cut the bonuses.

The protest was joined by the employees of the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), as well as the employees of other institutions. After the rotest began at the headquarters of the ANAF, employees of its regional offices joined in.

• "Give us the money"

The public sector workers are unhappy with the fact that they haven"t received their performance bonuses in two months. The bonuses are awarded for results in activities such as fighting tax evasion.

Public sector workers claim that their income was cut in half. One of the protesters claims that he saw his monthly income drop from 1,000 lei to 500 lei a month.

The employees of the ministry of Finance shouted "Give us the money" on the hallways of the institution, claiming that their bonuses were paid out exclusively out of the results of their work, and did not require additional spending.

"The wages of the employees in the Ministry of Finance have become the lowest in the public sector", the Ministry acknowledged, in a press release sent to the editors.

• Negotiations fail, the press blamed again...

The negotiations for ending the protest failed, and the employees of the ministry continued.

At noon, an attempt to mediate the conflict was made through talks in the meeting room, but it yielded no results, as Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomiţianu was busy with the weekly Government meeting.

The head of the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), Sorin Blejnar, who stood in for the Minister of Finance during the talks with the union leaders, found the scapegoat and made the following statement, as quoted by Mediafax: "Well, hear what the unions and the public sector workers are saying, that you"ve been spreading lies (ed. note: the press) (...) You, in the media bear part of the blame for the fact that these people aren"t getting their money anymore. For instance, I heard the following phrase on the Antena 3 TV channel: < Employees of the Ministry of Finance found it easier to deal with the 25% wage cut, because they had outrageously high salaries >".

• Public sector workers asked to wait until Monday

The talks in the meeting room then moved to the hallways of the Ministry.

Since the Minister was missing, Sorin Blejnar, like a true minister, climbed on a chair and tried to address the protesters, but his voice was not loud enough to get through the booing and the interruptions from the hundreds of disgruntled protesters. "If you want the issue to be solved, behave decently!", Sorin Blejnar told protesters, to which they replied: "We want decent wages".

Blejnar tried to convince them that their situation would be solved by the Parliament, as the Chamber of Deputies would debate on Monday a draft bill which would include an amendment putting their wages and those of employees in the units controlled by the Ministry of Finance will match those in the other public institutions, but the employees of the Ministry of Finance were rather skeptical.

The workers in the Ministry decided to continue their protests and thus ended one very frantic day.

• How the employees of the ministry ended up with the lowest wages in the public sector

Employees in the Ministry of Finance rank last in the public system in terms of wages, according to a press release by the institution.

How did it come to this?

Up until July, employees in the Ministry were paid a monthly wage plus performance based bonuses.

In time, those bonuses became part of the income of every employee.

According to the quoted source, due to the current economic difficulties, about one month ago, the Minister of Public Finance, Gheorghe Ialomiţianu, lobbied for the Law which approved the Government Ordinance 1/2010 which was intended to bring the wages in the Ministry of Finance to the same level as those of employees of other public institutions.

The aforementioned press release mentions that at the moment, the draft bill which amends the aforementioned law is being debated in the Chamber of Deputies. The law will come into effect as soon as it gets published in the Official Gazette. It remains to be seen if the deputies of the opposition will attend the debates, since they announced that they will boycott the meetings of the Chamber of Deputies for as long as they will be chaired by Roberta Anastase.

• Bonuses of employees in the Ministry of Finance cost former Minister of Finance Sebastian Vlădescu his job

One of the reasons former Finance Minister Sebastian Vlădescu was replaced was precisely the issue of bonuses in his Ministry.

Sebastian Vlădescu was one of the voices that favored the awarding of these bonuses subject to performance criteria, but was harshly criticized by president Traian Băsescu for it.

Sebastian Vlădescu recently said: "The president and I have had differing opinions for a long time. I supported the payment of these bonuses in the Ministry of Finance. The reasoning behind these bonuses was that wages in the Ministry of Finance were lower than in other public institutions. In the Ministry of Finance employees did not have bonuses, they had incentives, and taking them away after wages had already been cut by 25%, would have meant a 60% drop in income for its employees, which would have made it very hard for people in the Ministry to do their jobs".

The former minister also claimed that if the only complaint against him was his position on the subject of bonuses, than that would mean he did a very good job in the Ministry.

• Băsescu: "The two ministries give incentives for the "great" job of failing to increase fiscal receipts and for the booming of the black market labor"

After the government reshuffle which took place in September, president Traian Băsescu made the following statement: "It was agreed that wages in the public sector would be cut by 25%. It was therefore very hard for me to understand or to agree to what happened last month. Employees in the Ministry of Finance and in the Ministry of Labor would be paid more money, as if the former had reached their targeted fiscal receipts, and the latter would be paid as if they had successfully eliminated the black market labor. I find it unacceptable that certain sector would keep their rights, and privileges that have no justification anyway. This is why I strongly urge the heads of the two ministries, not to repeat the mistake of defying the public opinion, like the two ministries did last month. Please believe me that I found it awkward to see dignitaries donating their entire salaries, whereas the two ministries decided to pay bonuses for the "great" job of failing to meet the fiscal receipts targets and for the booming black market labor. This is a warning to all the members of the Cabinet, based on the idea that we can"t expect solidarity from our citizens while at the same time protecting certain categories of public sector workers".

• Finance minister alomiţianu, in September: "The incentives must go away"

After taking over the Ministry of public Finance, Gheorghe Ialomiţianu affirmed the statement of Traian Băsescu.

"The incentives paid out to the employees of some ministries must go away and be replaced with a system that is fair to all public sector workers", the minister of Finance Gheorghe Ialomiţianu said, quoted by Mediafax.

At the time, Gheorghe Ialomiţianu explained: "We need to provide a mechanism for rewarding those who work in the Ministry of Finance for their results, but it"s obvious that in a period of crisis you can"t create benefits for other people, especially those in your own backyard, while asking others to tighten their belts. This was the president"s message and we must abide by it (... ) We will review the current wages in the Ministry of Finance and in the Ministry of Labor, because I"ve been told they are very low compared to those in the other ministries. We need to create a fair system and this incentive-based system must go away".