The National Union Block (BNS) has announced a protest scheduled for Monday, May 13th, to denounce the high labor taxes in Romania.
Union members argue that the current tax burden placed on employees is significantly higher than the European average and is negatively impacting workers' incomes.
Ziare.com obtained exclusive details regarding the BNS's priorities and spoke with Marcel Spatari, Syndex expert and former Minister of Labor in the Republic of Moldova, about the alternative of taxing luxury goods and properties.
Objectives of the Monday Protest
Horațiu Raicu, BNS Secretary-General, stated to Ziare.com that the protest aims to address the government's lack of communication regarding potential new tax measures and its reliance on labor taxes to finance the social security system.
"We have repeatedly protested against the transfer of contributions from employers to employees. Our dissatisfaction has been public and remains unchanged. In the context of hearing rumors in the public sphere about progressive taxation or labor taxation, we understand that workers will continue to be the main supporters of pension and health insurance budgets. This does not seem fair to us. If we discuss multinationals or investors, they have benefits in terms of profit taxation and dividend benefits, including the fact that Romania does not take measures related to profit outsourcing. These things have created an excessive deficit. At the same time, the Romanian governments have not and do not address tax evasion, which would bring more money to the budget," stated the union confederation official.
High Labor Taxes: A Burden on Romanian Workers
In Romania, 4 out of 10 lei from gross salaries end up with the state in the form of taxes and social contributions, which are paid by the employer. Over 80% of the funding required for the pension and health systems to function comes from employee contributions, the BNS highlighted in a press release announcing the protest. The union's secretary-general maintains that this system will become increasingly dysfunctional.
"Strictly speaking, in terms of pensions, the system will become deficient. The money also comes from the consolidated budget. Here, we have a problem in that the state does not even monitor employers who do not pay contributions correctly. In the future, it is clear that the fund will have to be subsidized, so to speak, from the state budget. We will not have the necessary number of employees to support pensions. Nothing else needs to be done but to have a coherent, fair, and predictable fiscal policy. This way, each of us can know, when we retire, what we are basing ourselves on," Raicu emphasized.
BNS Seeks Dialogue with the Government
The BNS leader considers the rally to be a necessary first step to pressure the government into explaining its future plans regarding labor taxation.
"The protest is a first step, and we will demand to have coherent discussions. We will trigger protests throughout the year. Following the protest, we want to have discussions with the government regarding wages and the new progressive taxation that the government is rolling out. From what amount do we start with a different tax rate? Or will the tax be increased from 10% to 16%, to 20%? We need to know too, we are witnessing all sorts of discussions, without actually knowing anything concrete. At the same time, we have no one to talk to, because no one has put their vision on the table for us, starting with 2025," he declared to Ziare.com.
Exploring Alternative Taxation Methods
Marcel Spatari, the Syndex expert, explained to Ziare.com that any hypothetical reduction in labor taxes would need to be compensated from elsewhere, given that the public pension system already has too little money.
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