Three probation counselors from Sibiu are again on hunger strike. “We have been working on debt for 4 months”

Three probation counselors from Sibiu went on hunger strike on Tuesday, an extreme protest because they have not received their full salaries since the beginning of the year. “For 4 months the probation counselors have been working on duty,” say those who, also in Sibiu, are on a Japanese strike.

“Today, 04/02/2024, a third of the probation counselors from all over the country, affiliated or not affiliated with the National Union of Counselors from Probation Services and the PROLEX Union in Romania, are protesting between 11:30-13:30, in front of the Victoria Palace from Bucharest, as a result of not having received their full salaries since the beginning of the year. A few dozen other councilors who remained at their offices went on hunger strike and the rest are protesting through a Japanese strike,” the institution’s representatives say in a press release sent to the attention of Turnul Sfatului readers.

From Sibiu, two probation councilors went to Bucharest to protest, three councilors are at the headquarters on hunger strike, and the rest are showing solidarity through the Japanese strike.

Since 2018, since the entry into force of Law no. 153/2017, the probation staff were left with reduced salaries, as a result of a wrong calculation and only after 6 years of trials in the courts was issued the Order of the Minister of Justice no. 1407/03.08.2023 by which a new salary level was established, but only in writing, but without being paid. Only in December 2023, after 130 probation counselors in the country went on hunger strike for a long time, the correct salaries were retroactively received, but the normality was short-lived, because from January 2024 the employer returned to the erroneous salary from July 2023, states the quoted source.

The reason cited by the employer is that in the budget of the National Probation Directorate there is not enough money to pay the salaries in full until the end of 2024, so the decision was made to pay the salaries only partially. The amount required, until the end of the year, for the full coverage of salaries is approximately 30,000 thousand lei.

Probation counselors are a small professional group (less than 700 counselors in the entire system), not even 10% of the total number of clerks nationally and less than 3% of the total number of employees in the justice system. However, the savings to the state budget achieved through the efforts of the probation counselors are approximately 700,000 lei per month (the cost of supervision for 100,000 people and the civil obligations that are recovered through the probation services), by relieving the prison system, plus the indirect benefits through the integration social security of supervised persons on the labor market, at liberty, as tax payers.

“The work of a probation counselor is complex, demanding and risky, all counselors have multidisciplinary higher education (law, psychology, social work and sociology), many with doctorates in the field. Equally demanding is the access to the system, where the admission contest lasts several months, with multiple tests at the national level. For what? For a starting salary of 3200 lei and only after obtaining all the degrees (4 exams held at the national level) and 7-8 years of seniority in the system to reach the average net salary in the probationary system, of 4500 lei, this being the only benefit of the work done. Probation counselors do not have any of the rights of other professional categories in the justice, penitentiary or internal systems: settlement of rent, commuting expenses, special pension, not even settlement of medicines or trivial glasses,” say the representatives of the Sibiu Probation Service .

In the situation where the current problems will not be solved, there is a risk that these staff will leave the system, considering that in all legal/psychological/social assistance fields the salary level is clearly higher.

The advisers draw the attention of the Government that the strategies for developing a system are carried out with people, professionals being the most important resource of the probation system. In the absence of the allocation of the necessary funds for salary correction, this system will involve and entail tens of costs for both the government and society.

In December 2023, three councilors from the probation in Sibiu were again on hunger strike, the protest being extremely unsuccessful. 16 counselors work within the Sibiu Probation Service.

Read also Three probation counselors from Sibiu resorted to extreme protest: hunger strike. “Until now, the other forms of protest have not resulted in any result”

The second day of the hunger strike for the three probation counselors from Sibiu. “We have become immune to promises. We only trust facts”

Probation counselors work under the National Probation Directorate.

At the national level, there are almost 700 people employed in the Probation Services, who supervise over 100,500 people at liberty, criminally sanctioned with alternative sanctions to the prison sentence, the statistical average being almost 150 people/counselor/year. In addition to supervision, however, they also have other professional duties – documenting and making pre- and post-sentence evaluation reports, the presence of counselors in parole commissions within penitentiaries, the application of social reintegration programs, the presence of counselors in courts at various judicial stages, numerous administrative activities.

The situation in each county is different, depending on the degree of load. For example, in 2021, in Calarasi there was an average of 1872 cases / 4 probation counselors (468 cases/counselor), in Teleorman – 2018 files / 7 probation counselors (288 cases/counselor), in Prahova – 3078 files, in Braşov – 3309 files, in Timişoara – 3978 files, and in Bucharest – 6948 / 49 councilors (133 files, with the mention that in the Ilfov – Bucharest areas there is a high incidence of cases with high risk and high degree of dangerousness).

In Sibiu, the average is approximately 120 cases per councillor.

photo Sibiu Probation Service

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