Special pensions for 1,000 retired public employees in Romania cost the state EUR 20m

A draft law stipulating that in these cases the pension and the salary be cumulated will be debated publicly at the end of the month and reach the Parliament’s table by April, the advisor Mihai Seitan said.

Lawmakers will discuss it urgently and hopefully the law will enter into force in on July 1, he added.

The Cabinet’s plan is to ban that pensions and salaries be added up for those employees that earn from the state more than the average salary. Each such employee who is retired but keeps on working will have to choose either the salary or the pension.

“No matter what employees choose, the state will save some 20 million euros annually,” Seitan said. 

The government is looking into ways of cutting public spending with salaries and has frozen hikes until April, to the dissatisfaction of teachers, healthcare employees and public administration staff.

The labor minister told NewsIn that the International Monetary Fund representatives who are currently doing an assessment of the Romanian economy before granting a loan were interested in these special pensions.

Those who get such pensions have worked and continue to in the justice system, the Parliament, in diplomacy, in the army of in air transportation, the minister added.