Although signs of the financial crisis are being felt on the local market, there is no reason to panic yet, says Labour Minister Marian Campeanu.
"Growth percentages have been repositioned. We are no longer anticipating 7.5 percent growth for next year, the NBR forecasts 4.5 percent. Yet it is growth, which means we will not see many layoffs. Moreover, we have a labour shortage that can offset the layoffs from other sectors. There is no reason to panic," Campeanu says, adding that part of the negative effects of the financial crisis have been overcome, but the crisis is just beginning.
The minister says that Romania has been through a long transition during which it faced issues that an economic crisis can cause. "Institutionally, we are prepared to deal with higher unemployment than before."
Unemployment could be higher than this year, when it reached 3.9 percent, though not significantly higher, at least not in the first half of next year.
The Minister believes that a debate should be started in terms of a greater flexibility of the conditions on the labour market, so as to allow companies to hire people for shorter periods of time, when they are on the rise and then make their employees redundant in case the business is slower. "The current conditions in the labour legislation are very restrictive. The future government should start a debate on what is going on the labour market and how the Labour Code could be modified because we have no time left to discuss such an important topic now. In times of recession, any job for whatever period is welcome".
As for the debate on the teachers' salaries, Campeanu says that no country in the world can grant 50 percent pay rises when the economy only grew by 9 percent, labour productivity by 13-14 percent and inflation stood within reasonable limits. "What was a real problem with tea
