The salaries of community social workers of the Communist Social Assistance Service will be raised by 20% as of January 1, 2017, IPN reports, quoting an amendment proposed to a Government decision of April 13, 2006, concerning the pays of budget-funded employees.

The Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, which drafted the amendment, says the community social worker is the pillar on which the social assistance measures, both the social welfare and social services, are based

Taking into account the complexity of the activity and workload of the community social worker, a sector priority index of 1.2 was set for calculating the salaries of this category of budget-funded employees.

The Ministry said the cash transfers from the state budget to the local budgets in 2017 include 12.6 million lei for increasing the pays of community social workers. Thus, the salaries of community social workers will vary between 1,368 and 1,488 lei. The bill is to be approved by the Government.