The adoption of this piece of legislation regarding some fiscal-budgetary measures in the field of public spending causes serious slippages at the level of the public social assistance system, argue the representatives of the National Trade Union Federation of Social Assistance and Child Protection FNS Pro Asist, representative federation for the Social Assistance sector, affiliated to Cartel Alfa, write Agerpres.
According to the source, the trade unionists referred to the draft Emergency Ordinance regarding some fiscal-budgetary measures in the field of public spending, decentralization of public services, economic-financial discipline, as well as for the modification and completion of some pieces of legislation appearing in the public space.
Thus, the FNS Pro Asist Federation has urgently requested a meeting to discuss the issues identified in the draft emergency ordinance by eliminating the restrictive provisions regarding employees and expenses from the public social assistance system, otherwise, it will start actions and protests that will culminate in a general strike.
As for the salary rights granted to the staff in the social assistance activity sector, the union representatives consider that 60 pct of the care staff, maternal caretakers, personal caretakers are paid at the level of the minimum wage in the economy, having salary coefficients below 1.08, social assistance being permanently considered a „Cinderella” of the budgetary system.
Thus, the trade unionists claim that they will not accept „under any circumstance a restriction of some rights for employees in this system”.
„All changes regarding the restructuring of local public authorities will implicitly lead to the restructuring/reduction of the number of personal caretaker positions for people with disabilities, which will have a direct impact on these vulnerable people who require non-stop care, and in the absence of personal caretaker positions, demands are increasing for people with disabilities to be institutionalized in care and recovery centers, even though these centers are also on the way to being abolished,” the press release states.
With regard to the loss of legal personality of units with less than 50 positions subordinated to county or local public authorities, the trade unionists claim that there are medico-social assistance units in each county, with legal personality, which, according to the legislation in the field, cannot have more than 50 beneficiaries, and implicitly, the number of positions is less than 50.
The representatives of Pro Asist claim that this budget deficit will lead to a decrease in the quality of social services provided to beneficiaries from residential and recovery centers, i.e. total non-compliance with standards regarding living conditions, food, hygiene, education, health, and social services.
„The activity of public institutions in the field of social assistance cannot be superimposed on that of other units and institutions in the sphere of public administration, so that, the modification of the Administrative Code in an abusive manner through an emergency ordinance, without a concrete analysis of the situation on the ground, a consultation of the social partners and without following the path of parliamentary legislative control, we believe that it will lead to major syncope in the services offered to the beneficiaries of social services, reaching to the point of putting people at risk in situations of major risk (children victims of abuse, people victims of violence, victims of human trafficking, drug victims, people with disabilities at risk of losing their bodily integrity, etc.),” says the union.
The Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation was founded in 1990 to offer Romanian workers a real and democratic representation. The confederation is representative at the national level, brings together 38 trade union federations at the sector level and coordinates the activity of 42 territorial, interprofessional branches.
