Agricultural payments agency personnel take wage-cut protest to downtown Bucharest

Some 600 employees of the Agricultural Payments and Interventions Agency (APIA) from all over the country gathered on Wednesday in front of the Agriculture Ministry in Bucharest to protest the 30 percent cut of their salaries as of next year. 

Equipped with the usual protest props - vuvuzelas and signs reading: "APIA, tight-knit unity!", "No "center - local splitting"", "Abide by law. APIA - a specialist body of public central administration", "Same job = same pay", "Respect us, don't crook us", "Not whining, but battling for our due rights" - the protesters are determined to vent their anger until 14:00 hrs today, hoping officials will hear them out in the end. 

Octavian Mateescu, president of the APIA Trade Unions National Federation, told AGERPRES that some 500 - 600 people joined the manifestation. 

"We are defending our pay rights. As you know, beginning January 1, our wages will go down by some 30 percent, specifically by 700 to 2,800 lei. My colleagues are very upset about these cuts and we hope that Mr. Minister of Agriculture [Petre Daea] and the government will listen to our grievances," Mateescu said.

Asked if they will hold discussions with government officials, he said he didn't know this yet, but that they will gladly sit down for talks if invited. 

APIA employees from several counties have halted work since November 16 to protest the looming wage slump as of January 1, 2018, as an effect of the enforcement of OUG No. 79/2017 (the Wage Law). 

The previous week Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea advised local APIA personnel to "keep quiet and do their job", because they get paid for their work. 

Contacted by AGERPRES last week, APIA CEO Adrian Pintea said there is a draft OUG in the pipeline that would settle the pay issue and that the union leaders had been informed about that at a meeting on November 14 at the ministry headquarters. 

"There is indeed an issue with Wage Law No. 153/2017 as regards local management and executive positions up to the level of senior advisor. There is a draft OUG (...) in the making to settle particular aspects regarding APIA pays. (...). I am aware of what each and everyone's work has meant, because I've spent days and nights here," Adrian Pintea said on November 15. 

The 'Cartel Alfa' National Trade Union Confederation released on Friday, November 17, a statement terming "attempts to intimidate APIA employees" following the protests kicked off at local centers as unacceptable and urging the management to take the necessary steps to make sure that all the employees of the institution's local offices collect the same net wages as of January 1, 2018. 

APIA has currently 4,859 positions of which around 400 at the central headquarters.