Ligia Deca, the Minister of Education, will hold, on Friday, a press conference in which she will clarify the situation related to the Emergency Ordinance that provided salary increases for teachers. Meanwhile, the general strike continues, the teachers being dissatisfied with the solution found by the Executive.
Ligia Deca, press conference at the Ministry of Education. The main statements
- The work of school staff is essential, as studies and the pandemic have shown us, and I think everyone wants the educational system to be based on other bases, careers, infrastructure
- At the proposal of the union representatives through the Government’s GEO, we guarantee an increase of 1,000 gross lei per month for teachers and auxiliary staff and 400 gross lei for non-teaching staff. As a message all salaries in education are increasing, salaries are not decreasing.
- Yesterday there were other reports that are not true. One of them is related to the opinion of the Legislative Council, if you consult this opinion you will see that the opinion is favorable and there is no phrase: unconstitutional.
- The average salary in Education starting this month increases to 8,500 gross lei, if we take into account all the staff in education.
- Regarding the government’s commitment to the future of pay in education: The grid on this commitment was discussed with union representatives in December-January at the Ministry of Education.
- Grids have resulted that will be the basis for the new wage law, I have sent these grids to the Ministry of Labor. The grid starts from the average gross salary in the economy. A first meeting with the trade union federations has already taken place, those grids are still the basis for discussion. The commitment is that the starting point is the average gross salary.
- So far we have managed to keep the national exam calendar under control. We have extended the closing period for grades 12th, as well as enrollment. It is very important to be able to stay on this calendar, to give predictability to students and to ensure the best conditions for conducting exams so that we can all return to classes next week.
- In the context in which this does not happen, we will have to think about extensions: the end of midterms, rescheduling of national exam tests.
- We ask the teaching staff to help us finish this year in good conditions. I remind you that we have almost 183,000 8th grade students and 142,000 12th grade students. For these students we need to go back to school
What happens to the Emergency Ordinance that provides salary increases for teachers
The press conference that will take place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education will start at 12:00, and the main topic will be “clarification of the aspects related to the application of the Government’s emergency Ordinance no. 53 of June 1, 2023”, it is stated in a press release sent by the institution.
The Legislative Council abolishes the draft Emergency Ordinance by which the Government forces teachers to accept salary increases of 585 lei, stating that the Ciucă Government’s GEO is unconstitutional.
- The Government’s GEO violates the principle of non-retroactivity, because it provides in the annex salary increases for 2022.
The Legislative Council analyzes and approves draft laws, legislative proposals and draft ordinances, emergency ordinances and normative decisions of the Government, with a view to submitting them for legislation or adoption, as the case may be.
After the approval of the ordinance, a beginning teacher with higher education now has 2,376 lei net without any increase and would reach, through the adopted GEO, 2,956 lei net.
A teacher with long-term higher education, definitive teaching degree, experience between 5 and 10 years, will receive from the current salary, without any increase, to 2,713 lei, he will receive 3,365 lei net.
The strike continues in education
The trade unionists from Education who went to negotiations with the Government and President Klaus Iohannis announced that the teachers are not giving up the strike.
“The protest actions will continue from Tuesday. They called us to inform us that the GEO was adopted. There is no element of novelty, and negotiations can still continue, at the level of the Ministry of Labor, on the future law”, said Marius Nistor, the president of the Federation of Education Unions.
