Ilie Bolojan, on salary arrears for magistrates / “They amount to almost 0.6% of Romania’s GDP. Whoever is in government cannot possibly pay such sums overnight”

Ilie Bolojan warns that Romania cannot quickly pay the salary arrears established through more than 20,000 lawsuits, worth approximately 10 billion lei. The PNL leader stated that the amount represents nearly 0.6% of GDP and is equivalent to the entire annual salary increase for the 1.2 million employees in the public sector.

Bolojan called it “immoral” that courts involved in similar disputes end up ruling on lawsuits concerning salary rights. He argued that these cases “clearly” have a tendency to be won. The late-payment penalties requested already amount to approximately two billion lei.

”Either you can realize that this is nearly 0.6% of Romania’s GDP. Consider that this amount is the total annual salary-increase envelope for the 1.2 million employees in Romania’s public sector. Whoever is in government will not be able to pay such sums from one day to the next, because this country simply does not have that money. This is the reality,” the PNL leader stated.

The acting prime minister said that the Executive cannot make a budget rectification and that the future government will have to stagger the payment of the debts and swiftly adopt the unified pay law. Romania lost 770 million euros from the PNRR because this commitment was not honored.

Separately, the High Court definitively won, on October 15, the lawsuit concerning salary arrears owed to magistrates, estimated at five billion lei. The Government has ten days to enforce the ruling; otherwise, it risks penalties of 1% per day.