Education Unionists And Government Officials To Resume Talks In September
Union leaders in the education sector will hold a new round of talks with government officials on September 14-15 because their recent meeting yielded no results.
Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu said he cannot present a concrete calendar regarding salary increases, adding he expects the adoption of the salary law for public sector employees in order to boost the wages of the education staff.
Unionists said Labor Minister Rovana Plumb undertook to submit the salary law to Parliament so that it can be adopted at the end of November or the beginning of December. (Evenimentul Zilei)
Healthcare Employees Threaten To Stage Protests Again Early September
The medical staff in Romania threatened to protest again at the beginning of September, calling on the government to double their salaries and offer better working conditions.
Healthcare employees are displeased with the planned wage increases by 25% starting October and started to raise signatures for mass protests in front of the Health Ministry headquarters on September 1.
Physicians are hoping that patients, medical assistants and patients will also join the planned protests. (Adevarul)
Bucharest Stocks Fell Over 5% Monday
The main indices of the Bucharest Stock Exchange fell over 5% by midday Monday, declining by over 2% compared to the end of 2014.
At around 1:40 p.m., the BET Plus and BET indices decreased by 5.01% and 5.04%, respectively, which translates into a decline of over 2% against the end of 2014.
The bourse’s liquidity was high, reaching RON63 million (EUR14.2 million) in the part of the day, exceeding the RON50.8 million level registered on average during a whole trading session this year.
Marcel Murgoci, operations director at SSIF Estinvest, said external markets are to blame for the decline. (Romania Libera)
Competition Council: Price Monitor To Be Launched By End-2015
Competition Council president, Bogdan Chiritoiu, on Monday said the Price Monistor will be launched by the end of 2015.
The new online platform will present the prices imposed by the main retailers for the products that make up the daily consumer basket.
“The plan is to create an online platform, preferably in partnership with retailers, which will represent a price monitoring instrument aimed at helping customers to find out where they can buy the cheapest products. This way, stores will face a competitive pressure as to offering cheaper and cheaper prices,” said Chiritoiu. (Puterea)
UNPR Calls For Amendments To Criminal Code
The National Union for Romania’s Progress (UNPR) plans to set off talks with all parliamentary parties for the endorsement and quick adoption of the amendments brought to the Criminal Code.
UNPR head Gabriel Oprea mandated Eugen Nicolicea, minister for the relation with Parliament, to handle the talks.
“Early August 2015, the Interior Ministry put forward a bill amending the Criminal Code, which sets harsher punishments for acts of outrage targeting police officers. On August 5, 2015, at the initiative of Interior Minister and deputy Premier Gabriel Oprea, it was drafted a bill amending article 257 — Outrage, and article 279 — Judicial outrage, with a view to imposing harsher punishments for this type of acts, for the purpose of cracking down on violent acts against the representatives of state authorities,” UNPR said in a press statement. (Puterea)