Museum Curators Protest Publicly and Plan to "Sabotage" the "School Otherwise" Program

The National Federation of Unions in Culture and Media, "CulturMedia," affiliated with CNS Cartel Alfa, is starting the new year with strong protests. They are expressing dissatisfaction with recent legislative regulations, claiming that these severely affect the dignity of employees in the Romanian museum system. The union announces protests starting from January 15. According to them, "Ignoring all principles from the Labor Code and the Unified Salary Law regarding equal opportunities, professional performance, and competencies, the Romanian Government has "achieved' that, through an Emergency Ordinance adopted on December 28, 2023, the salary of a beginner specialist during the probation period in museums within the educational system will be higher than that of a top-level specialist in all museums in Romania. In other words, the salary of a newcomer hired yesterday will be higher than that of the most reputable specialists in traditional museums in Romania." According to a press release from the National Federation of Unions in Culture and Media "CulturMedia": "The difference between specialists on the same level is over 1500 lei, in favor of specialists in the educational system. Furthermore, cynically, the Romanian Government states in the Grounds of the Emergency Ordinance the following: "The adoption of these measures ensures compliance with the constitutional principle of equality before the law, in the sense that the maximum level of the base salary must be the same for all personnel who benefit from the same working conditions, regardless of the institution and public authority in which they carry out their activity.' In accordance with Law no. 311 of July 8, 2003, on museums and public collections, with subsequent modifications and completions, museums are public cultural institutions in the service of society, which collect, preserve, research, restore, communicate, and exhibit, for the purpose of knowledge, education, and recreation, material and spiritual evidence of the existence and evolution of human communities, as well as the surrounding environment." The union announces that they will request the Ombudsman to refer the constitutionality of the articles related to museums to the Constitutional Court, will take legal action against the Romanian Government, taking into account the decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice no. 80/11.12.2023 - the panel for resolving certain legal issues, which establishes that the principles of non-discrimination and equality can be invoked for equalizing the maximum base salaries, provided that they have general applicability within the same professional category within the same occupational family. The union leadership announces: "In parallel with these actions, protests will take place in all museums in Romania starting from January 15, 2023, Romanian Culture Day. Until the situation is remedied, we will cease any actions with the public that involve museum education and pedagogy within the "School Otherwise' program (guides, open lessons, other museum education activities). Additionally, public museum specialists will no longer carry out preventive archaeological research actions for archaeological workload discharge, will not participate in the organization of national and international exhibitions, considering that all these can be successfully carried out only by museums within the educational system or by other professional categories in the Culture sector for which the current Emergency Ordinance provisions apply." At the same time, on January 15, 2024, a protest will be organized in front of the National Library in Bucharest from 11:00 to 13:00, and museum headquarters in the territory will be picketed. The unionists demand the immediate adoption by the Romanian Government of an Emergency Ordinance to remedy the unprecedented blow to the entire museum system in Romania and to correct the large salary differences.