Marian Sârbu

Marian Sârbu (; born 12 January 1958) is a Romanian trade unionist and politician. A member of the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and formerly of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Călărași County (1996–2008) and Vaslui County (since 2008). In the Adrian Năstase cabinet, he was Minister of Labour from 2000 to 2003 Minister-Delegate for Relations with Social Partners from 2003 to 2004. In the Emil Boc cabinet, he once again held the Labour portfolio from 2008 to 2009.

He is married and has one child.

Biography

He was born in Budești, Călărași County, receiving a law degree in 1990 and a doctorate in Management in 2006. From 1990 to 1994, he was president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions in the Wood Industry, also serving as a member of the executive bureau of the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers from 1993 to 1994. In 1990 he also joined the National Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Romania; after this merged with the union Frăţia in 1993 to form the National Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Romania - Brotherhood (CNSLR-Frăţia), he served as the latter organisation's vice president until leaving in 1994. He was removed from the cabinet so he could join the party's coordinating bureau, on which he continued to sit for several years. He was elected again in 2004. From that year until 2006, he headed the party's social policy department, and from 2006 to 2008 was a vice president of the PSD. having been sent to run in Vaslui County after a party colleague withdrew from the race. Throughout his time in the Chamber, he has served on its Committee for Labour and Social Protection. as well as reducing grey market activity from 50% to 25%, eliminating charges on employers for the first year a new employee works, and increasing professional development for the unemployed.

In the Boc cabinet, Sârbu had to deal with the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, warning in March 2009 that unemployment could reach 800,000 by year's end and promising the authorities would be able to pay unemployment benefits and would give special attention to pensioners and low-income workers, in spite of a budget deficit. He supported a proposed law capping state salaries at 9,000 lei per month, 15 times higher than the minimum salary, and stated that the minimum pension would rise to 350 lei by October 2009. Speaking to a public employees' union, he urged that strikes and protests would bring nothing to employees, instead asking for concessions. Together with his PSD colleagues, Sârbu resigned from the cabinet on 1 October 2009, in protest at the dismissal of vice prime minister and Interior Minister Dan Nica.

In February 2010, Sârbu resigned from the PSD, citing disagreements in strategy and on social policy. Joining Gabriel Oprea's group of independents in Parliament, in May he was elected president of the UNPR, which Oprea had recently founded.