Further bargaining changes in Romania

The Romanian government has made further changes to the law on collective bargaining which should make it easier for unions to negotiate.

These follow earlier amendments to the 2011 Social Dialogue Act (see Labour Research, January 2023, page 8).

One key change affects bargaining at industry level. Under the 2011 legislation, the economy was divided into 29 separate sectors for the purposes of bargaining.

Both unions and employers had to represent a fixed proportion of employees in that sector to have negotiating rights.

Under the new arrangements, the economy is divided into 58 bargaining sectors. This makes it easier to reach the employee thresholds — at least in some industries — and the change has been welcomed by the unions.

A second change, at company level, is that employers are now obliged to negotiate if they have 10 or more employees. In the past, the threshold was 21 or more. There is no requirement to reach an agreement, but at least negotiations must start.