Members of the unions and employers’ representatives have finally reached an agreement with the Romanian Government on the minimum wage increase.

Although the previous Government, led by Victor Ponta, announced that the minimum salary would increase on January 1, the new executive said that it would not apply the measure without proper studies on the subject. On Tuesday, the Government decided that the minimum wage would increase to RON 1,250 (some EUR 277), starting May 1, 2016. The minimum wage currently amounts to RON 1,050 (EUR 233) in Romania.

According to the leader of the National Union Confederation Cartel Alfa Bogdan Hossu, the Government has submitted on Tuesday morning a draft resolution which includes this increase. Moreover, the unionists have agreed with this proposal as it provides an automatic indexing that will take into account the minimum basket and the inflation, which allows a mechanism for growth in the coming period, reports local Mediafax.

The negotiations haven't been smooth, as the Government planned to increase the minimum wage to only RON 1,200 starting May 1 while the unions asked for a minimum wage of RON 1,275, to compensate for the fact that the minimum salary wouldn't be raised starting January 1, as the previous Government had announced. The unions even said they would go on strike on January 15 if their request wasn't met.

The Economic and Social Council (CES) was convened Tuesday afternoon to approve the draft government decision.

Romanian PM: Government needs to decide on minimum wage by end-2015.

Minimum wage increase in Romania would create problems for companies

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com