Romanian teachers will organize a two-hour strike on Wednesday, which could be followed by a general strike next week if their demands are not met, meaning final exams may be affected, Euractiv reports.
Teachers are demanding a 60% increase in wages. A teacher with 25 years of experience earns around RON 4,500 (€910) per month, while a beginner earns less than half that amount.
Three of the biggest teachers’ unions said that if they do not have discussions with the minister of education and receive answers to their demands by the end of the week, they will begin a general strike on Monday.
The students understand the teachers’ demands, but the general strike would affect their upcoming final exams.
“We support the protests, but considering that students have the right to protest only if it does not affect class hours, according to current legislation, we consider the teachers’ protests to have a tremendous negative impact on the teaching-learning-evaluation process”, Miruna Croitoru, the president of the National Council of Students said.
Education Minister Ligia Deca does not “think that the structure of the school year or the educational process should be jeopardized in any way.”
However, she made no promises. A decision to raise the salaries has to be taken by the governing coalition in dialogue with the representatives of the trade union federations.
The protests started in December 2022, and continued every month, but “the Romanian Government was impassive, even though we had high-level discussions, both with the prime minister and the president of the Social Democratic Party. There were only unfulfilled promises,” said Simion Hăncescu, the president of FSLI.