Florin Manole, the Minister of Labour, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity, said on Saturday in Arad that he supported the reduction of quotas for workers from outside the European Union to leave room for hiring local labor, adding that some companies prefer foreigners because they are “minimally paid, vulnerable and easily dispensable workforce”.
In a press conference, the minister stated that at the end of last year employers asked him to increase the quota of non-EU workers from 100,000, as it was in 2025, to 150,000 this year, but he supported a reduction to 75,000, in the context of the increase in unemployment, according to Agerpres.
“150,000 people who would have come to work in Romania means that they would have come to work in some jobs. So, the entrepreneurial environment tells me in November 2025 that there is a need for new workers. I was criticized then, but I use the current opportunity to tell you that it was an unfair criticism, that why we decreased the quota of foreign workers. We decreased it and argued then that we need to leave more space for Romanian workers who will be affected by unemployment“, said Florin Manole.
“I don’t think this should be what a country wants”
The minister specified that, finally, by consensus, a quota of 90,000 workers was approved, showing, however, that the large number requested by employers shows “some people’s preference for minimally paid, vulnerable and easily dispensable“.
“I don’t think this should be what a country wants in relation to its own labor market,” Minister Florin Manole added.
Florin Manole pointed out that he is aware of the equal rights that those who come to work in our country must benefit from and the respect they deserve, but that he prefers to leave “as much space as possible for the Romanian citizen” who pays his salary and votes for him to represent him including from this point of view.
