Romanian unions push for 5,000 lei minimum wage in first talks with PM Niculescu

Talks at Palatul Victoria

Prime Minister Luca Niculescu met the leaders of the five main trade union confederations at Palatul Victoria in Bucharest on Monday, 2 November, in what was described as a first round of official consultations. The talks lasted about two hours. Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacșu, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare, Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete, Education Minister Sorin Costreie and Labour Minister Florin Manole attended, along with Sorin Ionescu, minister delegate for pre-university education, and Oleg Ungureanu, head of the Prime Minister's Chancellery. According to a government communique, Niculescu backed a first set of concrete measures: indexing pensions, reducing bureaucracy, and including the unions in consultations on Romania's national position for the next EU funding cycle. Nazare set out the fiscal and budget context and the steps the government plans to take to cover its financing needs until the end of the year. Niculescu framed the dialogue in practical terms:

“An instrument through which we can take better decisions, and an instrument through which we can sometimes avoid tensions.”

Minimum wage at the centre of the demands

The unions asked for the gross minimum wage to rise to 5,000 lei. Dumitru Costin, president of the Blocul Național Sindical (BNS), said the minimum wage and the tax burden on low incomes were the first topics raised, and that no figure had been advanced at the meeting. Libertatea reports that the unions' request is an increase of 675 lei, to 5,000 lei gross from 1 January 2027, combined with a partial shift of social security contributions back onto employers. Costin said the Labour Ministry is legally obliged to calculate an indicative minimum wage value each year from macroeconomic indicators and official forecasts, and that the unions had received the ministry's position through the government. He defended the demand as a matter of European law:

“This increase in the minimum wage is not a whim of union leaders. It is the result of the EU minimum wage directive.”

Costin added that Romania already has such a law and must apply it through a transparent, tripartite and predictable mechanism.

Pensions, pay and the price tag

Sorin Grindeanu, president of the PSD, asked the government to index pensions by more than 7% from 1 January. He tied the measure to the budget discussion:

“It is mandatory that pensions rise next year. This has to happen.”

According to the reporting, a pensioner receiving 2,000 lei would gain almost 150 lei a month, and one receiving 4,000 lei almost 300 lei. The indexation alone would cost the state almost 10 billion lei a year, and no clear source of funding has been identified. Ilie Bolojan, president of the PNL, said measures to control spending were necessary, since otherwise the year-end deficit could not be predictable. Mircea Abrudean, president of the Senate, said the PNL supports any measure that raises incomes if it is sustainable, and asked where the money would come from. The new public pay law could also lift salaries for ministers, MPs and mayors, a prospect the PSD had criticised when the Bolojan government considered raising officials' pay.

What comes next

The Tripartite National Council for Social Dialogue is to be convened in the coming days, and the Prime Minister has confirmed it. The unions said they would announce on Tuesday, 3 November, the sum by which the minimum wage should rise, together with an analysis. Employers do not agree with the union proposal, according to the reporting. The unions warned that they would take to the streets if no increase came by the start of next year. The five confederations, including Cartel ALFA and the BNS, also sent letters to Niculescu and Grindeanu asking for a calendar of consultations on the economic and social difficulties facing employees.