Hundreds of people are protesting on Thursday, in front of the Ministry of Labour, in a demonstration initiated by the Federation of Railway Transporters’ Unions of Romania, against the background of dissatisfaction with the new pension law.
Protesters shout „Resign”, „Shame on you” and „Thieves!” and display messages such as „Oltenii and Valea have lost their patience”, „PSD and PNL the same mess”, „We put an end to national betrayal, the destruction of the economy, corruption”, „PNL and PSD, where is our work?”, „Pension is not a privilege, it is a right”, „We saved the economy, you trampled on us”, „Our hard-earned right, you destroyed it with a pen”.
The rally scheduled between 9:45 and 12:00 is to be attended by other organizations from the structure of the Meridian Trade Union Confederation, as well as civil society organizations representing current and future retirees, affected by the current form of Law no. 360/2023 on the public pension system, which also had an impact on the „Forestry Staff Statute”, but also on Law no. 223/2015 on state military pensions.
According to a press release of the confederation, the current law has come with some obvious benefits for certain categories of pensioners, especially for those who have carried out their activity under normal working conditions, for as long periods as possible until retirement and with contributions that have been withheld and transferred to the social security budget.
On the other hand, the same law disadvantaged persons who worked in hard working conditions’ groups, persons with disabilities and with various degrees of disability, but also pensioners with low pensions who, after recalculation, received a lower pension, which will be indexed to the recalculated value, which will have the effect of reducing or even stagnating the indexation of the pension in payment for a period of several years, depending on the value of the difference between the pension in payment and the pension resulting from the recalculation.
Basically, the new Law on Pensions abolishes the hard working conditions’ groups regarding hard and special working conditions because pensioners who worked under these conditions do not benefit from stability points although they have contributed additionally and, thus, in a discriminatory manner, stability points are offered only to those who have worked under normal working conditions and who have not paid additional contributions, Meridian says.
AGERPRES
