Romanian Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu declared today after meeting the representatives of Projust federation that putting pressure on the government will not solve the problems and that there are no funds available for salary back payments obtained through court orders.
Predoiu
added the ministry went through with all the legal proceedings to pay
the rights invoked by protesters, but the general economic background
imposed a negative revision of the budget, which led to a fund shortage
for the payment of salary arrears.
The
justice minister said the payment that was supposed to be made on March
10 cannot be granted at the moment and that the representatives of
Projust warned they would proceed to another even larger protest and
will address the Labor Ministry as well.
Head
of Projust Stefania Teleman declared for NewsIn that the meeting with
Predoiu was calm, but with no results. Therefore, the auxiliary
personnel in the justice department is determined to call a warning
strike starting with April 15 and, if no solution is reached, to go on
a general strike from April 21 onwards.
Representatives
of the Projust federation, who organized the protest today in front of
the Justice Ministry, were invited for talks by minister Predoiu.
Hundreds
of persons representing auxiliary personnel in many courts throughout
the country began a protest today in front of the Justice Ministry,
asking for the resignation of minister Predoiu and accusing him of
failing to respect the court order regarding the payment of salary
arrears.
“We protest for the rights we have gained in court,” declared Teleman, clerk at the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Many
courts throughout Romania temporarily suspended trial sessions today in
protest. Some 100 clerks and archivers in the southeastern city of
Galati stopped their activity for two hours and other 40 clerks in
northeastern Iasi joined in. Auxiliary personnel working in northern
Maramures also ceased work to protest against the decision of the
Justice Ministry.
The
auxiliary personnel in Romania’s justice department are set to continue
street protests, unhappy with the ordinance on justice salaries which
slashes some bonuses.
At
the end of March Teleman told NewsIn that a first part of bonuses
granted by the law should have been paid to the auxiliary personnel.
However, not only this failed to happen, but the Justice Ministry
initiated a draft law granting magistrates all salary rights, slashing
bonuses for the auxiliary personnel.
What’s
more, the justice minister Catalin Predoiu asked that protests cease
“immediately”, labeling the move as unjustified, according to a release.
Staff
working as auxiliary personnel in Romania’s justice is not the sole
social category unhappy with the wages. Teachers also threatened to
call a big strike and even block the school year if the Cabinet applies
either of the two measures it announced last week. Education employees
had two options according to the central authorities, to either do
without some of the bonuses or fire 20,000 teachers.
At
the beginning of the year, the Cabinet announced plans to drastically
cut spending by 20 percent in order to face the reducing collections to
the budget, caused by the economic crisis which forced big companies to
fire people and decrease production.
