Romanian prime minister Ilie Bolojan has announced a 10% cut in public-sector staff as part of cost-cutting measures to reduce Europe’s largest budget deficit.
The proposal will affect 13,000 municipal employees, as well as about 6,000 positions at central and local government level. The cuts will come into effect immediately after the government passed an emergency order.
“The number of posts in ministerial cabinets and in the offices of elected officials within the central and local administration will reduce significantly,” Development Minister Attila Cseke stated. Posts in education, culture, defence, the police, and hospitals will not be affected, he added.
Public sector unions wrote in a letter to Bolojan and Cseke that the cuts would hit hard and affect “fundamental rights and legal certainty”.
Bolojan wrote on social media earlier this month that “the transition from a model based on deficit and consumption” had begun.
He said the model “seemed to generate prosperity but was in fact destructive,” adding that its replacement was “based on investment, productivity, exports and fiscal discipline.”
