The government has introduced a temporary moratorium on the hiring of budget sector staff in existing vacant positions. The draft resolution is drafted by the Ministry of Finance in correlation with the new wage policy measures promoted for 2025, IPN reports.

Thus, the approved document recommends local public authorities of both levels and special level of administration to suspend the employment of staff in vacant positions registered as of November 30, 2024. The provisions of this resolution shall not apply to the positions for which, on the date of entry into force of the resolution, a competition was announced.

According to the Ministry of Finance, personnel expenditure for next year is estimated at 29.8 billion lei, up by 8.29% compared to 2024. This increase reflects new wage policy measures, including the adjustment of the reference values for public sector employees' salaries.

For employees in the lower pay grades, for example, the reference value increases from 2,100 to 2,200 lei, and for certain categories of teaching, medical and public administration staff, it reaches 2,500 lei. At the same time, staff in areas such as justice and prosecution will benefit from increased reference values up to 2850 lei.

This project also implies the need to optimize the headcount, in terms of the functions performed, in the context of not allowing an increase in the share of staff expenditure in gross domestic product, a pre-established target indicator.

Thus, given the persisting financial constraints, in order to further support sectoral and administrative reforms, it is necessary to rationalize personnel expenditure in the entire budget sector, in order to direct the resources saved as a result of structural reorganizations and optimization of the number of staff in the budget sector to wage increases, the document approved by the ministry says.

The moratorium applies until December 31, 2025.