Trade unions no longer part of social dialogue committees

The five trade unions have decided to suspend their activity within all the social dialogue committees and the Economic and Social Council indefinitely.

They are dissatisfied with the legal provisions concerning the right to collective negotiations.

The decision was announced on Wednesday by the National Trade Union Confederation Cartel Alfa, National Union Bloc, Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions in Romania, National Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Romania – Brotherhood and by the National Trade Union Confederation Meridian.

According to them, the suppression of the collective labour contract at the national level by law and not adopting a regulation establishing activity sectors has made ​​it impossible to obtain representativeness of social partners and conduct collective negotiations at all levels.

"The protest of the five confederations against how the government perceives the social dialogue is based on the fact that we have noticed that they want to eliminate the social dialogue" the President of Cartel Alfa, Bogdan Hossu, said.

According to him, this is the only non-application of the legal framework
and this is the reason why the five confederations have decided to no longer participate in any social dialogue committee or committees of the National House of Pensions and National House of Health Insurance and in the Economic and Social Council.

The President of Cartel Alfa argues that trade union members are asking for a responsible social dialogue, which means that normative acts should not be discussed by committees after having already been adopted by the Government.

According to the union leaders, the government has taken no measure that might have been essential for employment in a crisis period.

The President of the Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions in Romania, Ioan Baciu, argues that Law 62/2011 regarding social dialogue should be amended and aligned with EU directives, but also with international labour conventions.

The union confederations are asking the Prime Minister, Emil Boc, to hold an urgent meeting with the National Tripartite Council for Social Dialogue in order to analyse and find solutions to these problems.

According to them, until the demands are not handled, they will not reverse the decision of not taking part in the commissions.

Moreover, they have announced that between 21 September and 1 October they will held protests at the Ministry of Labour.

Translated by: Denisse-Meda Bucura
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University