On the other hand, public administration, healthcare and education salaries were 10.5% lower on average this May compared with a year ago, a sign that the Government kept its promise and hiked salaries by 15% at the beginning of this year (after the 25% cut in mid-2010), according to the data published by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
Net average wage advanced by 2.1% in May 2010-May 2011 period, to 1,458 lei (EUR344).
Teachers were the public sector employees who felt the austerity steps taken by the Government the most: the salaries they got in May were almost 12% lower than in the same period of last year, and 19,200 people were laid off from the system.
In the healthcare and social assistance sector, salaries dropped by 9.6% in the May 2010-May 2011 period and the number of employees reached 347,900 people, almost 31,000 fewer than in 2010.
Regardless of whether public sector employees’ salaries revert to the pre-austerity program level or not, one thing is certain: hikes are conditioned on the reduction of the number of public sector employees.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu, edited by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)