Ministry of Economy and Commerce works out new wage system for civil servants

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) is working out a new wage system for civil servants, in compliance with the Strategy of central public administration reform. According to the deputy minister Sergiu Sainciuc, the first stage of the modification of the wage system for civil servants has been implemented once with the Wage Law, starting last year. Thus, the basic wage for a civil servant has been raised from 20% up to 50-60%. Sainciuc says that it was an absurdity that the total wage of a civil servant was mostly formed out of bonuses rather than from the basic salary. These proportions have been modified via the implementation of the Wage Law, so that the basic salary constituted in 2006 50-60%. Bonuses such as supplements for work experience, qualification degree, efficiency, professional competence, state secret, foreign languages known, constituted 40-50%. In future, the basic salary of civil servants is to rise up to 80%. Sainciuc mentioned that the basic wage will include previous supplements, and bonuses will be granted only for individual professional performances. Thus, the person will be hired and the wage will be established on the basis of the initial estimation of the performances of the future civil servant, about 10 ranks of basic wages being established. The deputy minister says that this reform is meant to contribute to ensuring stability of employees in the public offices. The average monthly wage of an employee of the public administration was of MDL 2153 in 2006, by 57.9% more, compared to previous year. In fact, civil servants benefited from the largest raise in the last year, compared with the other employees in the national economy.