Increases to 40,000 employees with personal difference

The Ministry of National Economy and Finance is proceeding in the system of personal differences of civil servants, paving the way for wage increases in employees with a slight personal difference and gradual correction of injustices and distortions.

A provision included in the bill to boost the capital market, which was put into public consultation, permanently regulates the issue of setting off the personal dispute of about 40,000 civil servants and will also allow them to receive the increases in the future.

With the new provision, approximately 40,000 civil servants will receive either the entire amount or a part of the amount of their basic salaries when they go up to higher pay scales.

More specifically, the provision, which applies retroactively from June 1, 2024, concerns civil servants with personal differences and provides that:

If the personal difference is less than 300 euros, it does not set off with the increase in the basic salary.

If the personal difference exceeds EUR 300, the amount of the personal difference being offset equals the least between 50% of the caused increase in the basic salary and the amount of the personal dispute exceeding EUR 300.

With the new arrangement, civil servants who have changed a salary step from June 1, 2024 will receive retroactive increases in their earnings, while April 1 is a new horizontal increase in the basic salaries of all civil servants due to the increase in minimum wages.

It is recalled that the implementation of the provision to date, which provides for a gradual reduction in personal differences in the remuneration of civil servants through « offsetting » with future increases in their remuneration, was suspended between June 1, 2022 – May 31, 2024, so as not to be settled by the offenses.

That is why last year, where for the first time increases were given to civil servants after 14 years, they were applied to everyone, whether they had a personal difference or not.

By the proposed provision, and given that the personal difference in some cases may amount to amounts that cause significant differences between employees of the same salary scale, it is retroactively regulated from June 1, 2024 and permanently the issue that has arisen and at the same time limits its personal payments.

The distortions in the current system of personal difference have led to absurdity in payroll evolution, as employees with the same qualifications and years of service receive remuneration with huge differences due to the time of promotions or their additional qualifications were recognized.

For example, a public sector employee with 15 years of service and a postgraduate diploma receives 700 euros of personal difference, while his colleague, with exactly the same qualifications and years of service, but with a lesser personal difference (100 euros), takes 680 euros less each month.

The budgetary cost, taking into account the retrospective validity of the measure, amounts to approximately EUR 11.6 million for 2025, increased by approximately EUR 5 million per year for the coming years.