Two ministers claim lower salaries than subordinate employees: “We need general solutions, not a witch hunt”

The Minister of European Funds, Dragoș Pîslaru, says that his salary is somewhere around 12,300 lei and that he has neither an incentive nor an increase in European funds, pointing out salary inequities in public institutions. “There are many civil servants who have much more than the salary of the Minister of the Environment, and not only from within the Ministry, but from a bunch of subordinate authorities,” said the Minister of the Environment, Diana Buzoianu.

In the context of the spending cuts that were made last year, but also of the new 10% cuts in personnel expenses this year, HotNews asked the two ministers on Thursday, at the Government, how their salaries were affected.

The Minister of European Funds, Dragoș Pîslaru, stated that the salaries of dignitaries have not been changed since 2017.

“Our occupational family, in a gesture that is quite interesting to analyze, slightly populist, I would say, since 2017 has not had any changes, no indexation – the salaries of dignitaries. So, basically, what is very interesting to know is that the minister of European funds has neither incentive nor increase of European funds, to be very explicit. And the cabinet advisers have, I think in all cases, the lowest salaries (…) I have the salary of 12,300 lei, something like this”, declared Dragoș Pîslaru.

Regarding the salary, the Minister of the Environment, Diana Buzoianu, stated that “it is the same legislation that regulates us all” and spoke about the “absurdity” of some inequities in the public salary system.

“In Romania, in fact, I'm talking to the Ministry of the Environment, because here I know, there are numerous civil servants who have much more than the salary of the Minister of the Environment, and not only from within the ministry, but from a bunch of subordinate authorities”, said Buzoianu, who did not want to give examples.

Pîslaru: The hope is that these inequities will be corrected through the unitary wage law

The two ministers were asked how it got here and why they tolerated such situations since they took over as ministers.

“The problem is that in 2016 I was actually the Minister of Labor and I worked on a wage legislation that took all these things completely out of the possibility of happening. Unfortunately, after that, the first big breach was made in the wage law, the local government got out of the wage law, as you recall, and after that, occupational families and wage scales were basically made into a pot by political decisions that were made by subsequent governments”, said Pîslaru.

The minister emphasized that these things should be corrected through the unitary wage law, which should be promulgated by August 31, 2026.

“So, basically, at this moment, and now let's move towards something positive, we have a unitary wage law that we have as a milestone in the PNRR to be adopted by August 31 – not to be adopted, sorry, to be promulgated by August 31 – and our hope is that these inequities will be gradually corrected by implementing the law starting this year,” said the Minister of European Funds.

“A general solution that will reduce frustrations in the field”

And the Minister of the Environment then emphasized that Romania has a chance to improve the situation with salaries and salary inequities in the public sector, if it fulfills this milestone in the PNRR.

“And then we will no longer have a specific discussion of each individual case, we will have a general solution that will be applied, the frustrations in the field will decrease, because, I tell you very clearly, there are, indeed, a lot of civil servants who manage the biggest projects in ministries or institutions, and it is precisely those who are often not rewarded and are not recognized for their true value. So the solutions must be general, we cannot transform every ministry and every institution in a hunt for witches, we need general solutions, so that we can take care of the measures and problems that are really needed in this country”, said Diana Buzoianu.

The Minister of Labor will present several scenarios

Asked what budgetary impact the unitary wage law will have, the Minister of European Funds specified that this will be announced by the Minister of Labor, Florin Manole, who “is preparing to present some scenarios to the government regarding this project”.

“Obviously, until there are discussions in government, anything I would say on this subject would be speculative. My prayer is not just a matter of collegiality with my colleague, but I simply assure you that he will come shortly with a timetable and scenarios or a draft version of this. And I would very much ask that we wait for him to present, and then obviously as the national coordinator, I will try to help him as I can in the relationship with the European Commission or in any relationship that exists”, added Dragoș Pîslaru.