The National Council of the Sanitas Federation in Romania calls on the Government to fully apply the public sector wage law, in force, for all categories of employees in Healthcare and Social Assistance, according to a press release sent to Agerpres on Friday.

The Sanitas county leaders present at the National Council meeting on Friday, representing the more than 100,000 union members in Healthcare and Social Assistance, analysed the multitude of wage-related problems repeatedly reported by employees from the two systems.

„In the context in which the inflation rate increased to 15.9 percent in September 2022, reaching the highest level in the last 19 years, and the cost of living doubled in 2022 compared to last year due to increased prices for all consumer goods and services associated with daily living, most categories of employees in Healthcare and Social Assistance have benefited, in the last two years, from insignificant salary increases, with derisory amounts between 56 RON and 300 RON. The whole society must deal with this cost of living crisis, but it is incorrect and immoral for the main victims to be the employees with the lowest salaries in the two systems,” the press release states.

According to the cited source, in Health there are only a few professional categories with high salary incomes, the majority of employees being represented by those positioned below the average salary or close to it: nurses, stretcher bearers, medical registrars, TESA and auxiliary staff, social workers, psychologists, chemists, biochemists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, etc., who account for over 60 percent of employees in Healthcare and Social Assistance.

The representatives of Sanitas also request the consultation of the social partners in the process of designing the new law of the public sector personnel’s wages – which the governors assumed through the PNRR – so that the direct correlation of salary income with purchasing power and the cost of living is guaranteed.

Agerpres