The employees of the National Museum of Banat will welcome the visitors with white armbands on Thursday. They go on strike in Japan, because of the “dramatic situation in which this socio-professional category finds itself”.
The union within the National Museum of Banat, affiliated to the Culturmedia Trade Union Federation, affiliated to the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation, participates starting on April 4, at 10:00 a.m., in the Japanese strike initiated by the Culturmedia Trade Union Federation.
“Employees from museums and public libraries in Romania are launching a series of protest actions on Thursday, April 4, against the dramatic situation in which this socio-professional category is located, the Museum announced.
The complained problems are those of the degradation of the professional environment in which museum employees work.
“The Trade Union Federation CULTURMEDIA affiliated to the National Trade Union Confederation CARTEL ALFA draws attention to the chronic degradation of the professional environment in which the employees of public museums and libraries in Romania work, a professional sector ignored, forgotten and minimized by all governments.
The actions of the government at the end of 2023, culminating in the issuance of GEO 128/2023, had the effect of blatant discrimination against all employees in the public system of museums and libraries in Romania, despite the complexity of staff training, their professional performance, strategic importance and usefulness the field,” MNAB employees also report.
Under these conditions, the CULTURMEDIA Trade Union Federation requests emergency measures for:
- The remedy of moral and salary discrimination generated by GEO 128/2023 and the urgent equalization of similar positions in the system of museums and public libraries;
- Allocation of a budget of 0.9 of GDP to the cultural sector with a fair distribution to museum institutions and libraries;
- Fixing the current anomalies in the salary system for the staff in cultural institutions – equalization with performance institutions;
- The annual indexation of the salaries of the staff paid from public funds in cultural institutions, with the inflation rate;
- Additional payment of staff from cultural units/institutions involved in income-generating activities at the state budget (preventive archaeological research, other own income-generating activities) as well as staff from project teams financed from European funds;
- Payment of overtime by museum and library staff and financial compensation for staff working permanently on weekends and public holidays;
- Respect, consultation and involvement of legal social dialogue partnerships in the legislative activity that is likely to produce effects in the field;
- Single, national collective labor agreement for museum institutions and libraries.
On April 4, the members of the CULTURMEDIA Trade Union Federation, affiliated to the CARTEL ALFA National Trade Union Confederation, will protest against the discriminatory salary policies and against the non-honoring of the promises launched in the public space by the Government representatives.
The protest will take place at the workplace, in all museums and public libraries and at all work points within the preventive archaeological sites organized by the museum institutions, by wearing white banners.
The protest on April 4 is the first in the calendar of national protest actions, which will culminate with the triggering of the General Strike, in the second decade of May 2024, in parallel with the protest demonstrations expected for the International Day of Museums and the Night of Museums.
