Labour crisis. Olguta Vasilescu: an EU directive. A minimum wage of 3,000 lei for foreign workers

Against the background of Romania's labour shortage, the Minister of Labour, Lia Olguta Vasilescu, said that foreign workers will have to be paid more than three thousand lei a month, under a European directive. She also believes it would be far better to hire Romanian workers, with the help of European funds and government programmes.

"We come to a sensitive subject that the business community has raised with us many times, which is increasing the quota of foreign workers on Romanian territory. We have already had several discussions with the business community, which asks us to open the borders to people from the Republic of Moldova or Ukraine; I have even heard of 3,000 workers from Sri Lanka that a large company in western Romania wants. We have received requests from mayors of towns on the western border too, asking us to open the borders to foreigners. I would like to tell you a few things that are worth knowing: you will have to pay them the average wage in the economy, which means not 1,450 lei, the minimum wage, but more than 3,000 lei, the average wage. It is an EU directive meant to protect the internal labour force of the EU, a directive Romania cannot give up and has no intention of giving up," the Minister of Labour said.

In her view, companies should first use every instrument available to them to hire Romanian workers.

"I do not see why we should not make use of the other measures the Government has put in place, for example the 'First rent' programme, which lets you bring in workers from counties with high unemployment. Why do we not draw on European funds, such as those for apprenticeships and traineeships? We are open to discussing any kind of idea that encourages Romanians to come back to Romania," Vasilescu stressed.

Three million Romanians outside the country

"For my part, as long as we have three million Romanians outside the country and wages in Romania have started to rise, and in September wage growth in the economy was 14% higher than the year before, I do not agree, and I do not see why we should accept people from Africa and Asia working in Romania when we have so many measures at our disposal, and this Government is very open to other measures you may propose, so that we do not have to turn to labour from outside the European Union," the Minister of Labour added.

Source: DC NEWS