Romanian public servants will go on general strike indefinitely starting Monday, September 27, said Sebastian Oprescu, head of the National Union of Public Servants (SNFP), adding public servants are starving and are heavily indebted.

Some 34,000 public servants affiliated with SNFP would go on general strike indefinitely, as of September 27, demanding that their salaries go back to the level prior to the 25 percent public sector wage cut, layoff plans be scrapped and that they get legal protection. The National Federation of Unions in Administration might also join the public servants' strike, Oprescu has also said.

The general strike will hinder the activity in 350 public institutions in the central and local public administration, such as, the Financial Guard, the Labor Inspection, the Consumer Protection Authority, the National College for the Study of the Securitate Archives, or CNSAS, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Transport and the National Environment Guard.

"If unions' protest actions can be correlated with union federations' actions, then, the general strike might take place earlier, on September 22, when an ample protest rally is organized in capital Bucharest, but public servants will no longer set up protest rallies, because they brought us nothing good", said Oprescu. Public servants' wages range from RON 600 to RON 700 (EUR 140 to EUR 164).

Mediafax