The Law on Social Dialogue, published in the Official Gazette on 10 May 2011, repealed all previous regulations on collective labour agreements and incorporated them under a single umbrella. The new bill restricts certain trade union rights and how social partners can organise. Changes have been introduced into collective bargaining, abolishing the previous national agreement relating to the 32 defined branches of the national economy. This decentralisation in collective bargaining has brought with it uncertainty as the government has not defined the economic sectors in which bargaining can take place. It has already had an impact in some disputes (see Tarom case below). Some commentators argue that collective bargaining has come to a standstill.
Changes to criteria for social partners’ representativeness will also impact on unions. Under the previous law, 15 people working in the same economic branch or profession, albeit in different companies, were required before a trade union could be set up. Now, it takes 15 employees in the same company to establish a trade union. However, as 90% of Romanian companies have up to nine employees, representation of workers’ interests by trade union will be out of the question.
Furthermore if a trade union is to be representative and allowed to negotiate a single-employer collective agreement, then at least half plus one of the company’s workers have to be affiliated to it (compared to one third under the old law). Consequently, only one trade union may be deemed representative in one company, whereas under the previous legislation it was possible to have three such trade unions.
Despite, intensive consultations with the social partners before the Labour Code and Law on Social Dialogue were adopted and the unions’ and the employers’ organisations’ rather common positions, the government disregarded them and assumed on its own the adoption of the legislation in spite of the social partners’ opposition.
The changes of the social dialogue and labor legislation are affecting almost half of the Romanian workers, namely the public servants, i.e. almost 2 million employees out of the total 4.198.500 employees. The Labour Code amendment also seriously hinder and limits the collective bargaining process for public employees, as all the rights established through laws cannot be the object of collective bargaining.