Wednesday: Personal assistants of disabled people protest in Alba Iulia. What are their grievances?

The Trade Union of Personal Assistants of Persons with Disabilities from Alba Iulia, affiliated to the Federation of Trade Unions of Personal Assistants of Persons with Disabilities from Romania CNS Cartel “Alfa”, is organizing a protest in front of the Prefecture of Alba County on Wednesday, April 3.

The protest will take place between 11:00 and 12:00.

According to union representatives, the reasons for organizing the protest are:

• The elimination of a disadvantaged professional category – personal assistants – from the salary scale regarding the health and social care occupational family approved by GEO no. 19/2024 in a discretionary and discriminatory manner, in order not to benefit from a salary increase and the recognition of seniority.
• Decision no. 23/2023 of the High Court of Cassation and Justice has abusively removed the right of personal assistants to an increase for working conditions, even if they take care of severely disabled people! A big discrimination between personal assistants who do not benefit from any increase for working conditions and employees of residential centers for people with disabilities who benefit from increasing working conditions up to 50%, even if they look after the same category of beneficiaries and the risks are same.
• The increase in the prices of fuel, utilities and basic food directly affects all categories of employees and its cumulative effects cause a significant decrease in purchasing power. In this economic context, personal assistants who care for children or adults with severe disabilities are at risk of poverty together with the vulnerable people they care for, having an income below the limit of a decent living both for themselves, the vulnerable person and their own family.

“Personal assistants represent the professional category that cares for children or adults with severe disabilities in the family, they represent the most reasonable solution to the option of institutionalizing these disabled people because the care is given one to one, paying maximum attention to all the needs of the vulnerable person, being from the point of view from a legislative point of view considered as a social service intended for disabled people at home. Personal assistants are employees of social assistance departments or town halls, the salary level is at the minimum level guaranteed in payment, but even so the employer does not always grant the due rights, so they have a continuous struggle to obtain all the rights regulated by law.

Through this protest, we want to draw the attention of the governors that there are categories of employees at high risk of poverty, that they manage more and more with the vulnerable people they care for, in addition, the legislation must grant equal rights to all, not preferentially by professional category” conveyed the president of the Union of Personal Assistants of Persons with Disabilities Alba Iulia, Paulleti Cristian.