About 200 professors gathered together in front of the Government Building to demand that their pays be raised and to protests against the Government’s decision to increase their salaries by only 10%. Dumitru Ivanov, chairman of the Education and Science Trade Union, has told IPN that the trade unions in July agreed with the authorities that the salaries of teachers of pre-university education institutions and universities will be raised by 20%. In the case of school teachers, the Government kept its promise, while in the case of professors the rise is of only 10%.

“I cannot understand what kind of state we live in. What kind of democracy it is. The Government drafts a law providing that the rise will be of 20%, submits it to Parliament and then unilaterally amends it so that the salaries are increased by 10%,” said Dumitru Ivanov.

He noted that five of the universities do not have students studying on a contract basis or have not many such students. These institutions cannot survive without the Government’s support. Also, the universities with a higher number of students on a contract basis use the money to purchase equipment, to perform repair works and to pay for maintenance so that they cannot afford to increase the salaries from the own funds.

According to Dumitru Ivanov, the professors have a salary of 4,800 lei on average. The pay depends on the teaching load and the academic titles held. A large part of the university teachers have much lower salaries.