Teachers' salaries to rise by 24% from September 1

The salaries of teachers will be raised by 24% from September 1, 2009. The pay rises planned by the previous government remain in force, Info-Prim Neo reports. At Wednesday's meeting of the Government, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said that the salaries will be increased by 15- 30%, depending on the size of the salary. The rise for the teachers with a low salary will be 30%, while for those with a larger salary - 15%. The increase will be 24% on average and teachers' salaries will be close to the average salary in the economy- 2,700 lei. The bill with amendments to a number of legislative documents approved by the government proposes postponing the pay rises planned for public and military servants from October 1 as the previous government did not earmark the necessary resources in the budget. A sum of over 1.4 billion lei is needed for the purpose, but the available resources total only 600 million lei. Asked if the previous executive planned a rise of over 24%, Prime Minister Vlad Filat said that they promised pay rises, but did not have money for this. He said that the given issue will be discussed again immediately after the economic situation improves and voiced hope that the public servants will be paid according to their efforts and responsibilities. Communist MP Igor Dodon, former First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Trade, said that he does not consider right to postpone the salary rises for certain groups of bugger-paid employees. “Consumption is low and will further shrink if we do not increase the salaries as the incomes of the people will decrease. Respectively, the collections into the budget will not be larger. Moreover, the water and sewerage charges and the bus and trolleybus fares have been raised,” Dodon said.