The government has revived an old proposal for a 10% solidarity tax on wages of public sector employees earning over €1,000 per month. The tax is meant to be a temporary measure and its revenues will go into the funding of energy subsidies or the recalculated pensions of military personnel. The tax will apply to all workers in the public sector as well as in companies owned wholly or in majority by the government. Public sector unions have announced they will fight the tax, which they consider discriminatory and unwarranted considering the 25% wage cut that civil servants took in 2010. The leader of the liberal coalition partner also expressed disagreement with the tax, claiming that the party is against raising taxes and that the revenues from the solidarity tax would be too small to make any difference on the state budget. Prime minister Ponta also said the government coalition is considering a tax reform towards a more progressive system.
English: http://www.romania-insider.com/solidarity-tax-on-state-wages-above-eur-1000 ...
http://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-ruling-coalition-leaders-publicly-disagree ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.