What the newspapers say: January 15, 2010

100,000 state employees will be sacked, while PM Boc apologies. Unions are repairing for protests. Elsewhere in the news, Unemployment benefit funds are only sufficient for four months. Last but not least, Health state secretary to be faced with a penal complaint from the civil society.

100,000 state employees will be sacked, while PM Boc apologies, Gandul reads. Romanian govern estimated between 70,000 and 400,000 lay offs during the last months, the publication goes on. Work minister Mihai Seitan talked about 80,000 in the beginning of the month and yesterday an additional 20,000 were mentioned by Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu, stating that 100,000 lay offs were being planned. In December 2009, he said that nobody will be sacked, but a number of roles would remain vacant.

Work minister told Gandul that the figure represents an „evaluation” and it was not set in stone. „Finance Ministry put together all salaries approved for 2010 and reached to a certain sum. The sum was divided by the average income and it resulted in a number of people. From this number it deducted the number of employees and one gets a difference, ‘the average people’, if I may say so. In reality, credit managers [like ministries] received certain salary funds and need to assess if it fits them”, Work minister said.

According to him, people don’t need to be sacked, but people could have their incomes reduced. Transport minister Radu Berceanu said 10,000 people from his sector are to be sacked, saying that only those remaining jobless after the official unemployment term has expired will receive compensations.

Local councils will lay off 17,000 staff, says Interior minister Vasile Blaga. PM Boc apologises for the various figures to have emerged and promises standards for a correct number. Mediafax informs that unions are preparing for protests, saying that normative act projects addressing unemployment have been put together by accountants and not by experts.

Unemployment benefit funds are only sufficient for four months, Adevarul claims, namely 2.94 billion lei. According to the publication, only 280,000 people will get compensations, even if there were almost 710,000 recorded unemployed at the end of last year, out of which 435,497 were already on benefits. The lay off-maths excludes the unemployed coming from the private sectors. The average unemployment benefit rate for 2010 is 523 lei per month.

The fist redundancy wave will consider 17,000 people. The state will aim to get rid of those 100,000 employees on one side, but it will have to pay an increasing number of benefits on the other. PM Boc said during the debates in the plenum that the Parliament adopted an act that would enable the Romanian state to respect the agreement with the IMF.

Health state secretary Adrian Streinu-Cercel is going to be faced with a penal complaint from the civil society, Romania Libera informs. His disposition to see doctors getting the swine flu jab or else be faced with the suspension of patient interaction or his wish to force all children to get the jab unless parents oppose it made Streinu-Cercel unpopular.

Senator Iulian Urban said the state secretary went over his authority and that his dispositions are illegal and, therefore, to be ignored. Urban said he „has to be stopped” and made an example of. Thus, he will be taken to court for disregarding doctors and children’s fundamental rights. Health minister Cseke Attila told doctors nobody was forced to be vaccinated against the new flu and children between 6 and 16 years of age will be subjected to the jab only at their parents’ request.