Following the changes to the labour law implemented 2016 in Romania which severely undermine freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, the ITUC and its affiliates (the Blocul National Sindical, the Confederatia Nationala Sindicala Cartel Alfa, the Confederatia Sindicatelor Democratice din Romania and the Confederatiei Nationale a Sindicatelor Libere din România) have urged the government to amend the legal framework and restore social dialogue.
Under the 2016 law, trade unions must represent at least 50+1 per cent of workers in the sector in order to be entitled to negotiate collective agreements. This high threshold makes the possibility to conclude a collective agreement practically impossible.
The prohibitive nature of the prerequisites enshrined in the new legislation becomes even more evident when it is taken into consideration that 42 per cent of employees in Romania work in small- and medium-sized companies that in 32 per cent of cases are so small (less than 21 employees and less than 15 workers per unit) that they do not even have the right to create a union that can engage in collective bargaining.
With the elimination of the collective agreement at the national level and the new reform requiring such strict prerequisites for collective bargaining at the sectoral level, it is clear that industrial relations will shift towards plant-level bargaining. However, from a total of 530,000 enterprises, only about 14,000 have a valid collective agreement signed. It needs to be noted, also, that of these 14,000 only a minor percentage have been signed by representative trade unions, while the vast majority of agreements have been signed by so-called “new representatives of employees” stipulated in the newly reformed Romanian labour law. The representatives of employees who do not enjoy the resources and the “power” of trade unions are in a much weaker position to negotiate, thus the quality of the collective agreements is lower, failing to ensure adequate working conditions and fair wages.
The Confederatiei Nationale a Sindicatelor Libere din România (Cartel ALFA), together with the other confederations, has been trying for the past seven years to amend the laws in order to restore collective bargaining, but all the efforts are being blocked mainly by the Council of Foreign Investors and the American Chamber of Commerce.
National trade unions deplore the fact that social dialogue in Romania has now become an empty shell. There is in fact an intensive campaign led by the authorities and investors to dismantle the trade union movement in the country. The government does not respect the idea of representativeness as it carries out consultations with any workers’ organisation, regardless of its legitimacy to represent workers. It even replaces social dialogue with the social partners with consultation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Trade unions are faced with the persistent refusal of the government and the Parliament to amend the laws which are in clear contravention of ILO Conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining.
