Work force crisis to follow?

The migration of Romanian workers after EU integration has stirred debate predominantly in the United Kingdom, but businessmen from Romania say the exodus of the work force will pose great challenges to the Romanian economy, which will not have the means to sustain its growth. “I think that, after the crisis triggered by the appreciation of the RON, which was devastating especially for exporting companies, the next economic crisis looming large is related to the work force migration,” stated Florin Pogonaru, chairman of the Romanian Businessmen’s Association. According to him, there are two things that need to be done immediately to prevent a mass exodus of Romanian workers to the West after integration: employers need to increase wages and the Government needs to drastically cut back on social security contributions. “The natural wage increase process should be sped up at the expense of a decline in the profit margin of employers. In addition to this, the Government needs to promptly and drastically reduce the CAS (social contributions) in order to help employers raise wages,” says Pogonaru. In the UK, the debate on the obstacles that Romanian migrants face has become tenser than ever before these last few days.