After a new round of negotiations, this time with the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Education, the trade unionists in Education bluntly announce: there is no reason to abandon the strike or the large protest on Tuesday. The teachers are still asking for salary increases which the Government does not seem to want to accept. At a critical moment when the teachers’ strike may overturn the National Assessment and the Baccalaureate, the union leaders asked the president Klaus Iohannis to intervene.
Simion Hăncescu stated that the unions requested what they requested on the list of demands, namely finding solutions to grant a salary increase, until the end of the year and the most important thing, to guarantee them, through a normative act, that in the salary law the debuting teacher will have a salary at least equal to the average salary in the economy.
“As an option for increasing wages until the end of the year, I proposed to apply article 12 of law 153, more specifically, that ranking coefficient 1 be multiplied by 3,000 lei, which is the minimum wage in the economy, and not by 2,500, which is now “, Hăncescu also said.
He stated that “it remains for the Minister of Labor to present this proposal to the Prime Minister and those in the coalition and to analyze it”. “For now, we don’t have anything concrete, we are waiting for a signal from the Government as soon as possible”, the FSLI leader said.
Simion Hăncescu also stated that they agreed to meet in the next period for the grid, but “what the people are waiting for is a normative act that establishes what they presented”.
For his part, Marius Nistor said that “when the Executive sincerely wants an end to this labor conflict, it is clear that the three presidents of the three parties that form the coalition must make a decision”.
“The decision is strictly related to the two proposals that were advanced by the trade union federations. We don’t want this conflict to continue, we want everyone to return to the classrooms as soon as possible, but everything strictly depends on how quickly the coalition will make a decision. We expect that after the discussions held today at the Ministry of Labour, the messages sent by the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Education to the coalition will be perceived as such and the solutions will come very quickly”, said Nistor.
The leader of the Federation of Education Trade Unions also said that the protest on Tuesday is being held, and at the moment there is no reason that would make them give up on it. He announced that he additionally requested a meeting with President Klaus Iohannis, because it is his obligation to mediate this conflict in Education.
“Tomorrow’s protest is being held, at the moment there is no reason to call it off. I have additionally requested a meeting of the Offices of the three federations with Mr. President Klaus Iohannis, because we repeat, it is his lordship’s obligation to intervene at a key moment, at a critical moment and to mediate in this conflict that broke out between the education employees and the Government of Romania”. “Tomorrow, after 4:30 p.m., we are willing to meet where the president wants to solve this problem,” added Marius Nistor.
Editor : C.L.B.
