Labour Ministry Considers Extending Severance Payment Period

Ovidiu Vranceanu, BraŞov

Labour Minister Marian Sarbu said in Brasov on Friday that he would analyze the possibility of extending the period for paying severance until the end of the year for those whose severance support period would expire in April and May. "We will analyze and, if the budget effort is not too big, I think that we will probably be able to grant this extension, considering the crisis situation we are going through. However, I don"t think this is the best of times for doing so, because the unemployment fund does not have sufficient money, although we asked for an increment," the minister said.

Representatives of the unions whom the minister met in Brasov on Friday stated that there were not too many potential beneficiaries of such extension. "The severance payment period will expire very soon. Most of those who benefited from the provisions of Emergency Ordinance no. 116/2006 are aged between 49 and 54 now and it"s almost impossible for them to find a job now, especially considering the crisis," said Gheorghe Apostu, president of the Brasov organization of the union federation BNS. In Brasov, the situation only applies to the former employees of Tractorul, Rulmenul and Nitramonia - Fagaras, which made massive job cuts two years ago.

Apostu also asked the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Care to modify unemployment legislation so as to allow the unemployed to work based on civil contracts and continue to receive unemployment benefits. According to him, the unemployed could work in construction, including the programme to improve the heating insulation of residential buildings. "The civil contracts could be a source of revenue for the State, as the revenues derived from them would be taxed 16%," said Apostu. He believes that it only takes political will to pass an emergency ordinance to amend unemployment legislation.

Marian Sarbu responded that he would consider passing such ordinance, but he would have to check whether it contradicted regulations of the international labour organizations or various agreements signed by the Government with the IMF or the World Bank.

• Ordinance 28 should apply to temporarily closed companies, too

Suba Arpad, the IAR - Ghimbav union leader, asked the minister to expand the scope of Ordinance 28/2009, which enabled companies that completely suspended operations for up to three consecutive months during this year to pay their employees 75% of their salaries with a full exemption on salary taxes. He would like the scope of the ordinance to include companies that suspend only some of their operations and would like to offer such benefits to employees put in technical unemployment.