During the November 21 Tripartite National Council for Social Dialogue, the trade union representatives opposed the Government's intention to increase the quota of non-EU workers from 100,000 to 140,000.

"We did not accept today, although it was not on the agenda, an increase in the number of foreign workers. We stayed at the same figure as last year, namely 100,000," said the vice president of the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), Mircea Burlacu, quoted by Cursdeguvernare.ro.

The problem is, he argued, that one cannot consider increasing the number of foreign workers while not increasing the minimum wage.

A foreign worker costs much more than the minimum wage, the trade union leader explained. "We were asked if we consider that the number of foreign workers in Romania should be increased from 100,000 to 140,000. The answer was, on the trade union side, categorically, no," Burlacu said.

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iulian@romania-insider.com