Teachers who are owed money after suing schools have now learned they may not receive their scheduled payments for April. In some counties, schools have been warned that they can only make the payment if a certain cap/employee is met. It’s illegal, the unions warn.
The Ministry of Education and Research announced during this week that in April the installments of salary differences and interest resulting from the application of court rulings, related to the payment year 2026, will be paid. However, the good news would not apply to all pre-university education employees who sued their employer and won, signals coming from several counties that schools were imposed a ceiling of 10,000 lei/employee for making these payments. Unions reacted, warning that the measure was illegal.
What the Ministry announced that it pays
On the first day of April, the Ministry of Education and Research announced through a press release that on February 18, 2026, Order 3,226 was issued, which established the procedure for the payment of executive titles by units/institutions of pre-university education in 2026.
“After issuing this order, the Ministry of Education and Research proceeded to fulfill the related obligations, as follows:
• Along with the payment of salary rights for the month of February 2026, the installments of salary differences were paid, as well as the interest resulting from the application of court rulings, related to the payment year 2025, in a total amount of 244 million lei.
• Starting with the salary rights of March 2026, the installments of the salary differences and the interest resulting from the application of court rulings, related to the payment year 2026, are paid, with a deadline of December 31, 2026.
• When paying salary rights for the month of May 2026, with the payment date June 14, 2026, installment V of 35% of the total salary differences resulting from the application of GEO no. 48/2022 in the total amount of about 326 million lei”, it is mentioned in the communication.
The payment of the sums stipulated by court rulings, which became enforceable between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2026, is made percentageally, as follows:
a) in the first year from the date on which the court decision becomes enforceable, 5% of the value of the enforceable title is paid;
b) in the second year from the date on which the court decision becomes enforceable, 10% of the value of the enforceable title is paid;
c) in the third year from the date on which the court decision becomes enforceable, 25% of the value of the enforceable title is paid;
d) in the fourth year from the date on which the court decision becomes enforceable, 25% of the value of the enforceable title is paid;
e) in the fifth year from the date on which the court decision becomes enforceable, 35% of the value of the enforceable title is paid.
Although things seem very clear, the application of the above proves problematic in certain counties. Specifically, there are counties – such as Argeș, Buzău, Satu Mare, etc. – in which the school inspectorates informed the educational units that, upon payment of the 2026 installment of the monetary rights ordered by court rulings, the sums exceeding the value of 10,000 lei/person will not be included in the payment in the state of March, but will be audited/verified additionally and only then paid, signal the two representative federations in education, FSLI and FSE “Spiru Haret”.
Moreover, the unions accuse that they received signals from the territory that in certain counties the court sentences would not have been enforced (which provide for the payment of both the sums from which the employees were deprived due to the erroneous application of the law, updated with the inflation rate, as well as the related interests), but the differences in rights provided for by GEO no. 48/2022.
Why GEO no. 48/2022 to the detriment of court decisions
Several years ago, thousands of employees in pre-university education found that, with the transition to the new public sector payroll law, they were deprived of certain rights, so they began to take the employer (schools) to court. Sentences favorable to employees began to appear by the thousands, so that, in 2022, the state, obliged to implement them, decided, through an ordinance, to establish a unitary way of paying the differences for the entire sector, but these differences are not updated and bear interest. Thus, employees who did not sue the state began to be paid in annual installments, according to the above schedule, while teachers with court sentences remained to receive their money according to those sentences (which also establish updates of the amounts and interest). The two trade union federations now accuse that there are situations in which members with court rulings would have had the ordinance applied to them, so that the amounts the schools have to pay are lower.
“We have been informed that there are situations in which employees in education have not been paid their monetary rights ordered by court rulings with regard to the salary increases/increases provided for by art. 4, art. 5 para. (1), art. 7 and art. 8 of Annex no. Chapter I I lit. B, respectively art. 15 of the Framework Law no. 153/2017 regarding the salary of staff paid from public funds (salary differences updated according to the inflation rate + legal penal interest), but the differences in rights provided by GEO no. 48/2022 regarding the payment of differences in salary rights due to teaching staff in state education for the period July 1, 2017-August 31, 2021 (for which the legal interest is not calculated and paid). Mr. Minister, Such a provision lacks a legal basis, is discriminatory and contravenes the provisions applicable in the matter of the execution of court decisions”warn the trade unionists, in a joint address of the two education federations.
Several teachers have mistakenly received huge bonuses. “You can’t bring that much money into someone’s life and then say, ‘I’m sorry, you have to give it back.'”
“Failure to comply with a court decision by not executing the court decision regarding the payment of wages is a crime”, trade unions also point. The capping of the amount representing the payment tranche is also against the law, the unions also say, the educational unit having the obligation to ensure the full payment of the tranche, there being no normative act or administrative act with a normative character that would limit to the amount of 10,000 lei/beneficiary the amounts that must be granted in the execution of court decisions in the year 2026.
Where do the amounts come from?
One of the counties where the schools were sent, via address, compliance with the ceiling of 10,000 lei/beneficiary is Argeș. The leader of the Argeș “Muntenia” Pre-University Education Union, Adrian Voica, drew attention, through an address sent to IȘJ Argeș, that the establishment of this ceiling, which may result in the postponement of the payment to the beneficiaries (if the ceiling is exceeded), violates the law.
On the other hand, exceeding this ceiling is likely in many cases where the beneficiary has to recover amounts related to several court decisions, even more so when it comes to the gross amount, explains Adrian Voica.
“There are many species. Commute, tranche, management, merit gradation, increase for accountants, increases for harmful conditions, non-teaching, teaching assistant, IT teacher, etc.. Why do they think the amounts are large? Because the sentences provide for the up-to-date payment of the inflation coefficient and the penal interest. 30% of the payment amounts represent interest and the inflation rate. Because they delayed the payment of these sentences for a very long time, which they took as a joke,” said Voica, for “Adevărul”.
The sentences were pronounced for certain periods, and the rights take effect from the date on which the action was filed, with payments being staggered over five years. The largest amounts to be recovered are those related to the last installment (it starts with 5% of the amount in the first year, continues with 10% in the 2nd year, 25% in the 3rd year, 25% – the 4th year and 35% – the 5th year).
“They effectively hid the sentences”
“Each individual file represents a specific, concrete situation. We are not talking about sentences that have a general effect on all employees. Each employee has his own working conditions, his own seniority. One teacher has merit gradation, another also has merit gradation and management, so it is a problem that concerns each employee separately. What else I noticed: there were situations in which certain accounting employees actually hid the sentences, so as not to calculate them for the teachers and staff after the sentence, with the inflation coefficient and the penalty interest. They said there are no lawsuits in those cases. Dissatisfaction arose in the school and the union proved that it had won all their lawsuits. However, it was much easier and cheaper for the Romanian state to calculate the differences on Ordinance 48, which does not have penal interest”, Voica also signaled.
How much money does a housekeeper earn in Romania? “And I, stupid, also completed college and two master’s degrees”
On the other hand, in the address sent to the schools in Argeș, it is invoked “inconsistencies and situations in which the amounts were calculated incorrectly, without complying with the recommendations formulated by the audit control teams and the control body within the Ministry and Research”, specifying that “sums that exceed the value of 10,000 lei/person will not be included in the payment in the current state of March 2026, they will be subject to additional checks and paid later, based on an audit report”.
“For five years I have requested, on several occasions, personally, the SIPA Muntenia Union has requested in writing to the Ministry the development of a calculation methodology and a concrete program for calculating these rights resulting from court decisions assumed by the main authorizing officer of credits, the Ministry of Education and CTP. Until now we do not have this unique calculation program. Each school had to use specialized accounting firms, for a fee, obviously the schools paid for these salary entitlement calculation programs. And I ask you, where is the fault? At the schools or at the main authorizing officer of credits – the Ministry, which, for so many years, did not develop this methodology for calculating all court sentences?”the union leader from Argeș also emphasized.
The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education and the Federation of Trade Unions in Education “SPIRU HARET” requested the Ministry of Education and Research to unblock the EduSAL application so as to ensure the full payment of the differences in salary rights due to employees in education according to the final court rulings, “in the due amount, in relation to the installment to be paid in 2026” and to allocate the necessary sums for the full payment of the installments related to the year 2026 from the enforceable titles. The two federations also requested the transmission of instructions to school inspectorates “so that they approve the payrolls, regardless of the amount of the amounts provided as salary rights granted by court decisions”.
The money should be in staff accounts next week, before Easter, along with the March salary.
