Romania has adopted a new law on social dialogue giving trade unions greater powers and establishing an easier procedure for setting up and representing employees. The change follows the requirement for national governments to promote collective bargaining, under the EU Directive on minimum wages.
The law has been described as “a game-changer” and brings four significant reforms:
- collective bargaining must take place both at company level (if there are at least 10 employees) and at sectoral level;
- the opportunity to carry out collective bargaining at national level;
- new obligations for employers to inform and consult employees and trade union representatives;
- extension of the range of issues triggering collective labour disputes.
The new Law No. 367/2022 simplifies organising by reducing the number of workers needed to form a trade union from 15 to 10 in the same unit. It also allows for a trade union to be set up with at least 20 workers from different units in the same collective bargaining sector. The measure is expected to lead to a relaunch of social dialogue in Romania and an increase of the coverage of employees by collective labour agreements.
Photo: Eugen Visan