Labour Minister Steps Down in Romania

The cabinet of Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has suffered its first casualty after Labour Minister Ana Costea resigned on Thursday following tensions over a draft law that proposed revising wages in the public sector.

Ciolos accepted her resignation and said he would name another minister soon.

Costea's resignation was widely predicted as she had openly opposed the new law on public sector pay, which the government abandoned earlier this week.

In recent months, the government pushed for new law on wages in the public sector that would correct discrepancies in pay among the lowest-paid workers.

Last week, Ciolos also announced plans to raise public-sector wages in the second half of this year by 5 per cent on average, with a hike of 20 per cent for workers in the social assistance sector.

But trade unions expressed dissatisfaction with the scale of the planned rises.

The government promised that it would come up with a new proposal that would take into consideration the unions' requests as well as budgetary constraints for this year and 2017.