The Sanitas union in Covasna County said it will ask a court to strike down pay cuts at the county Public Health Directorate. There is no ruling yet and no closed case. Union leader Vasile Neagovici told Radio Romania Actualitati and Agerpres that the union had decided to sue because, in his view, the decision is unfair.

The pressure comes from a national rule, not a local whim. Emergency Ordinance 7/2026 requires county bodies under the Health Ministry to cut staff costs by year-end. DSP Covasna's management says it looked for ways to avoid layoffs and settled on a temporary cut to bonuses, to meet a 10% reduction against the previous year.

Staff object to two concrete cuts. The bonus for special working conditions was reduced by 300 lei a month for three months. The meal allowance was cut by 50% in September 2026. Neagovici says some specialist staff already had a 300-lei cap on that same bonus last year, so the new cut sits on top of an older freeze.

For the union, the fight is not only this autumn's figure. Health pay, Neagovici says, has not kept up with inflation. From 1 July 2025 some DSP Covasna staff saw the bonus fall from 15% to a 300-lei cap. From 1 January, those earning more than 6,000 lei lost the meal allowance. None of that predetermines a court win. It explains why the union says it has no other path left.

DSP director Agoston Laszlo said the directorate is already understaffed: 39 people in 69 approved posts. He chose the shortest bonus cut that would cover the 10% duty, rather than dismiss staff. Internal sums, he said, suggest three months should be enough, after which the old values return. He is covered by the same measure and does not claim staff welcomed it.

He also said unions could have protested when Ordinance 7 was signed, not in court now. That is management's view, not a finding. Neagovici warned similar steps may appear at other county health directorates and, on the union's information, at blood transfusion centres. That remains a possibility, not a national order.

Until a judgment, the cuts stand. The challenge is a lawsuit, not a reversal. DSP Covasna still has the 10% duty, and a union asking a court to stop the pay route management chose.

Image: Mihai Olaru, Sfantu Gheorghe city hall, August 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the town hall, not the DSP building in October 2026.

Sources consulted: DSP Covasna staff pay cuts to be challenged in court - Radio Romania Actualitati; Covasna: Sanitas to challenge DSP staff pay cuts in court - AGERPRES.