Trade union rights in Romania during the economic recession

Abstract

REPORT□ FINANCIAL CRISIS Trade union rights in Romania during the economic recession As a condition fora 20 billion euro loan Romania has implemented austerity measures including25 percentwage cuts AURORA TRIF Islecturer In Human Resource Management atDublin City University Business School In Ireland It global unions is hardly face economic major surprising challenges recession. that during Romanian In 2009, therecent trade the unionsfacemajorchallenges during therecent global economic recession. In 2009, the Romanianeconomy experiencedone of the sharpest annualcontractions withitsGDP falling by 7.1 percent.The RomanianGovernment is relying on a 20billion euroloanfrom theIMF, EU andtheWorld Banktoresurrect theeconomy. In orderto getthisloan,thegovernment agreedto introduce austerity measuressuch as thereductionofpublicsector wagesby25percent inadditionto 15 percent cutbacks on socialbenefits as wellas a significant reduction in thepublicsectoremployment . These austerity measureswere contestedby tradeunions.According to some commentators, theunilateral decisionofthegovernmentto introducethe austerity measures breachedtheprovisions of thecollective agreements ,the Labour Code and the Romanian Constitution. Recent changes inthe situation oftrade unions Tradeuniondensity is estimated tobe around33 percent, whichis above theEU average.Union membership decreasedfrom around90 percent in theearly1990s,butithas been rather steady in the2000s.In contrast to otherEU countries, tradeunion density was higherin the private manufacturing sectors thaninthepublicsector at thebeginning ofthelastdecade. According to a EuropeanFoundation study, in2002,tradeunion density was over75 percent in extractive industries , themetal working industry andinthechemicalsindustry , compared withonly30 percent in publicadministration. This reflects thefactthat manypublicservants did nothave theright to form a tradeunionuntil 2003. The 2003tradeunionlaw recognises therights ofall workers to establish and jointradeunions except high-level government officials, public prosecutors andjudgesandprofessional soldiers. Thisresulted innewunionsbeingestablished in the public administration sector,such as the National TradeUnionof Police and Contractual Personnel, whichnegotiated and concludedits first collective agreement in 2007.The 2003law retainsthe requirement of a minimum of 15 members to form a union,buttheydo nothave to be from thesame enterprise as theprevious law stipulated. This change was expected to boost union recruitment in smalland medium sizedfirms, butithas notyethad anysignificant effect. In 2007,theEuropeanFoundation reported thatuniondensity in theprivate sectorwas declining, whileitwas increasing in thepublic sector. According to the union leaders,one of the majorconsequencesoftheeconomicrecession is themassivedecreasein unionmembership due tojobcuts.Forinstance, around15percent ofthe labourforcein railway sectorwas made redundant in 2009 and 2010, manyof whom were union members.The decrease of fee paying members as wellas thecostsassociated withthe organisation of severalprotests in the lasttwo yearshave weakenedthe financial situation of thetradeunionsand theircapacityto organise further protests. Additionally, thepositions held in thecompanyby thelocal unionactivists are often targeted during therestructuring processof thepublicsectorinstitutions toweakenthetrade unions. In the privatesector,many foreign investors refuse todealwithtradeunions, particularly intheretail sectorand thehotelindustry. Sincethe1990s,there havebeen fivenationally representative trade union confederations whichhavetheright tonegotiate national collective agreements. The largestconfederation is CNSLR-Frätia, followed byCNSCartel Alfa, BNS, CSDR and Meridian. Despitesomepolitical divisions betweenthe confederations, therehave been a number ofattempts to establish a much moreunified unionstructure. The latestattempt to mergefourout of the fiveconfederations (except CNS CartelAlfa)was in 2007, but it resultedin a ratherloose alliance between CNSRL-Frãtia, BNS and Meridian. However,all theunionconfederations expressed strong oppositionto the austerity measuresand the recent changesinthelawregarding thepaysystem and therestructuring ofthepublicsector. The impactofeconomic recession on trade unionrights Whilethefreedom ofassociation intradeunions and the right to strike have not been severely affected by theeconomicrecession, therehave been majorconstraints on the right to bargain and theimplementation ofcollective agreements inthepublicsector. Theprovisions ofthecollective agreementsin the public sector agreed betweentradeunionsand the government for 2009and2010wereviolated bynewlawsregardingthereorganisation ofpublicsectororganisations (Law 329/2009) and theunitary paysystem for public sector employees(Law 330/2009). Basedon thenewlegislation, in2009,publicsectororganisations werelegally required to reduce personnel expensesby 15 percent, primarily by compulsory unpaidleaveup to 10working days. The government startednegotiations withthe tradeunions about the unpaid leave, but no agreement was achieved and the government INTERNATIONAL limon rights Page 16Volume 17Issue 3201 0 imposeditthrough a new law. Additionally, the reorganisation measuresstipulated in the new legislation envisaged massive job cuts(around25 percentof the 1.4 millionemployees),which werenotnegotiated withtradeunions,despite theprovisions oftheLabourCodewhichrequires managers to negotiate withtheunionson issues regarding collective redundancies of morethan fiveemployees. Severalpublicsectorunionfederations started coordinating their actions and 11 ofthem formed a new organisationnamed the Alliance of Budgetary Employees to protest against worseningtheemployment conditions oftheir members. The new alliancerejectedthe law's provisions compelling publicentities toreducetheir personnelexpensesby 15 percent a month. Theyalso refused to takepartin thedebatesofthesocial dialoguecommittees, whose agendas included theapplication ofthenewact.Also,theyorganised a number of protests, including a general strike in October2009-Around750,000public sectoremployeeswere involvedin...