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Parliament Approves Unfreezing of MPs' Salaries
Thursday 04 November 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 4 (TASR) - MPs' salaries should be reduced by two times the public finance deficit in percentage terms. Before this, however, MPs' salaries must be unfrozen, according to a bill approved by Parliament in first reading on Thursday.
The bill, submitted by Parliamentary Chairman Richard Sulik (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS), includes a proposal to reduce MPs' lump-sum allowances by 10 percent, and a merger of the cost of an MP's assistant and office into one single expenditure item, which would then be reduced to 90 percent of an MP's gross salary.
According to Sulik, the measures will reduce the costs devoted to MPs by 10.13 percent in 2011, representing a saving of €1.3 million per year.
"Freezing is a bad solution," said Sulik, adding that the direct dependence of MPs' salary from the state deficit will encourage lawmakers to make wise decisions.
The proposal would also reduce the severance pay for MPs from five-times their monthly salary to three-times.
Opposition leader Robert Fico (Smer-SD), under whose leadership the freeze was introduced, disagrees with the Coalition's plan to restore the valorisation of these salaries. "In times of global crisis, we made an unequivocal decision to freeze the salaries and stop the valorisation. We think that the fairest thing to do now would be to again suspend the valorisation as of January 1," said Fico.
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