site.btaRomanian Healthcare and Sanitation Workers Stage Protest against New Bill, Warn of General Strike

Healthcare and sanitation workers in hospitals across Romania began a warning strike on Tuesday, the Sanitas trade union announced on Facebook.

“Through today’s action, we want to send a clear message to the authorities - a warning and a call for dialogue,” the organisation, one of the largest in the sector, said. It added that the warning strike is not the final stage of the protests and stressed that if the demands of employees in the healthcare and social assistance systems continue to be ignored, the organisation intends to launch a general strike involving a work stoppage.

The dissatisfaction stems from a new bill on public-sector pay, which, according to trade union representatives, will cap or even reduce the salaries of more than half of the employees in the sector. In some cases, incomes will fall by up to RON 3,000 (around EUR 570), the protesters estimated.

The new public-sector pay bill provides for a unified salary system for public-sector employees, limits on bonuses and allowances, and the full implementation of a new 12-grade pay scale from January 1, 2027, without exemptions for specific categories. The law is one of the most important reforms Romania has committed to under its National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Romanian media noted. The deadline for its adoption is July 1, 2026.

A week ago, more than 10,000 healthcare and social assistance workers protested outside the Parliament building in Bucharest against the planned changes.