Radio România Internațional

Tag: employees

  • Working in Romania

    Working in Romania

    The Romanian government has approved a law on implementing the Adequate Minimum Wages, with a view to integrating the EU directive 2041 into the national legislation. The gross minimum wages in Romania will be updated according to the purchasing power, the general level of wages and their distribution, in keeping with the wage growth rate and the labour productivity at national level.

    The law will be applied to all categories of employees.  Under the EU Directive 2041 in 2022, the minimum wage cannot be less than 50% of the gross average earnings. At present, the value of the gross minimum wage in Romania is roughly 660 Euros and is expected to rise up to roughly 740 Euros starting July 1st. The medium net wages in Romania in April stood at 1.048 Euros 6.4 Euros higher than in March, says the Statistics Institute. The highest wages were registered in the area of IT services, roughly 2.405 Euros, whereas the lowest were found in the clothing industry, nearly 560 Euros). The law, endorsed by the Executive is to be submitted for urgent Parliament approval.

    Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, has promulgated a law under which paternity leave will be granted to all fathers who are employees under a legal labour contract.  The document does away with the stipulations about the ensured quality of the owner within the social insurance system and introduces some provisions through which other categories of people are included, such as those with contracts for sports activities, individual labour conventions, mandate contracts, management contracts, those involved in activities following a position of public dignity and those under management and administration contracts. The paternity leave has also been extended from five to ten working days and the compensation is equal to the wages of that certain period being funded from the state budget.

    During the periods of extremely hot weather, with temperatures above 37 Celsius and a comfort index over 80, employers in Romania are taking measures to improve the working conditions and maintain the health of their employees. Territorial Labour Inspectorates say that during the periods of hot weather, employees must benefit from physical activity of reduced intensity and pace, from ventilated rooms, and whenever possible the periods of activity must include pauses in shady places. Every employee must be ensured between 2 and 4 liters of sparkling water. In order to avoid illnesses caused by work in hot weather, the personnel will undergo periodical medical examinations in order to discover the cases, which may become vulnerable in periods of extremely hot weather.  The employees in these situations will benefit from reduced working hours or are allowed to change their jobs. Any violation of the present legal regulations constitutes a contravention punishable by fines.

    According to the National Agency for Employment, nearly 44 thousand jobs are available in Romania presently. Most of the jobs are in the area of security guards, 3,099, shop assistant – 2,232 and delivery men – 1,867. Also in high demand is the unqualified personnel needed in the process of assembling and mounting parts, 1,711. Unqualified workers are also needed on various construction sites, 1,685 jobs as well as cargo handlers with 1,381 jobs available. Romania also needs 911 chef aids, 814 road transporters and 779 lorry and van drivers. A complete job offer is available at the webpage anofm.ro.

    (bill)

  • The new fiscal law package at a first reading

    The new fiscal law package at a first reading

    The PSD-PNL government coalition in Bucharest on
    Wednesday night held its first talks over the new series of measures aimed at
    attaining a long-term balanced state budget and easing the EU-fund absorption. The
    country’s Finance Minister, Marcel Boloş, recalls that Romania has pledged to clear
    the 4.4% budget deficit target. And if it fails to achieve that, it runs the
    risk of seeing major EU fund cuts from the European Commission, funds, which
    are crucial in the process of streamlining the country’s infrastructure,
    including motorways, hospitals and schools.




    Marcel Boloş: We have 46
    billion euros in the cohesion policy and another 29.3 in the National Plan of
    Recovery and Resilience. So we are talking Romania’s future here, 75 billion euros,
    which we cannot afford being suspended.




    Besides cutting on public expenses, the Executive also
    wants to fight tax evasion, to improve income taxation and cut fiscal
    privileges. In an attempt to reduce the anxiety caused by the upcoming higher taxes
    and prices, the same Finance Minister says that prices will indeed be raised while
    banks and small enterprises will be paying higher taxes, but the VAT will rise only
    for some categories of goods and services




    Marcel Boloş: Food
    stuff will stay around 9%, and so will medicine, but medical prostheses for
    disabled people will remain at 0% VAT. At the same time we are going to have 5%
    for firewood, thermal energy, gas, everything that means household consumption.




    Before the government session, the new
    fiscal-budgetary measures had been tackled by the Three-party Social Dialogue
    Council, a body made up of representatives of the government, employers’
    associations and trade unions.




    According to their president Florin Jianu, The
    Employers’ Associations seem to be contented with the decision as they got the
    promise the measures will be applied as of January 1st 2024 and the
    VAT in the hospitality industry will remain unchanged.




    Florin Jianu: The
    hospitality industry will have a 9% VAT, a very good thing for this sector. Had
    the VAT been raised in this sector we would have completely lost
    competitiveness against our Bulgarian neighbors.




    Trade unions, however, are dissatisfied with the
    decision that holiday vouchers be given only to state employees with salaries
    up to 16 hundred euros. In response Social-Democratic Prime Minister Marcel
    Ciolacu said:




    Marcel Ciolacu With a state salary of 8.000 lei, one cannot apply for
    holiday vouchers, neither for food allowances. Employees with low salaries will
    continue to get vouchers, even at a higher value, but it’s totally unfair to
    give them to the employees with high salaries.




    Prime Minister Ciolacu is to present next week in
    Parliament the aforementioned package of fiscal-budgetary measures for which
    its Executive will assume responsibility.


    The new measures, which have attracted a lot of heat
    from the opposition, have been described by the country’s president, Klaus
    Iohannis, as a step in the right direction.




    (bill)

  • July 1, 2023

    July 1, 2023

    Russia — 40 employees of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, together with their family members, are to leave Romania on board a civil aircraft belonging to a Russian airline. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Romanias decision to reduce the staff of the Russian diplomatic mission reflects the current level of bilateral relations, in the context of Moscows launching a war of aggression against Romanias neighboring Ukraine. We remind you that, at the beginning of this month, the Romanian diplomacy announced Russia that it must reduce the number of posts in Romania by 61%. It was Russia’s choice to reduce posts and to ask its officials to leave Romania.



    Shipyard — The Severnav shipyard from Drobeta-Turnu Severin (south-west of Romania) launched the first fully equipped ship on Friday, after a 12-year production break. The cargo named “Napoleon” was made for a Romanian ship owner. It is a chemical tank, equipped with the latest technologies and equipment, dedicated to river transport of petroleum products – gasoline, diesel or bio-components. The shipyard on the Danube, with an experience of about 170 years, is trying to resume the construction of turnkey ships. This year, at Severnav, at least nine more ships are going to be launched for the Romanian market as well as for the Western European market.




    B-FIT Street! — This weekend July 1 and 2 promises to be a festive one in Bucharest, where the biggest international street theater festival in the city, B-FIT in the Street! is scheduled. After a three-year break, the event returns to Bucharest and transforms the central streets into pedestrian areas, where spectators can witness aerial acrobatics and interactive music performances. They will also enjoy sound installations, street musicians, cabaret dancers, fantastic characters who perform in itinerant shows, creative workshops and sports activities.



    Migration — The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the management and strengthening of the Union borders are among the main elements in the fight against illegal migration. She hopes that the ongoing pilot projects in Bulgaria and Romania will serve as a model of good practices for other external borders as well. The European leaders, gathered on Thursday and Friday, in Brussels, had heated debates on the issue of migration management, without reaching an agreement. Poland and Hungary are opposed to the pact that provides for the relocation of asylum seekers on the principle of solidarity. However, the reform continues its course, after last month it was approved by the Council through a qualified majority, instead of consensus.



    Attack – A citizen from Tajikistan shot dead two people, on Friday, at the Chisinau airport, after the Moldovan authorities refused him entry into Moldova. The head of the Moldovan Police said that there is no evidence that the 43-year-old man belongs to foreign military or paramilitary structures. The interim chief prosecutor stated that the incident is, however, being investigated as a terrorist act. The attacker opened fire after he managed to take the weapon of a border policeman, then barricaded himself in a room at the airport. The special forces captured him, the man is injured and was hospitalized under guard. Flights and commercial activity at the Chisinau airport were temporarily suspended. (LS)

  • Education Employees protest in Iasi

    Education Employees protest in Iasi

    The city of Iasi in northeastern Romania on Thursday saw the first episode in a series of protests put up by trade unionists from the countrys preuniversity education. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets and picketed for an hour the Prefects office to protest the small salaries of both the teaching and non-teaching staffers in Romanias education system.


    According to organizers, that was the first protest in a nationwide series against the current level of salaries in this field of activity, which they described as gruesome. All the categories of employees in this sector from teachers to auxiliary personnel and even managers have been affected by the authorities failure to raise payment in education.


    According to trade unionists the latest series of talks they held with government representatives has led to no significant results and authorities failed to implement the 25% rise, which was supposed to offset the present inflation rate.


    Protesters have also denounced the authorities refusal to pay for the extra-hours worked as well as to grant the bonuses negotiated. Here is trade union leader Laviniu Lăcustă, with more on the aforementioned protest:


    Laviniu Lacusta: “Unfortunately government officials failed to implement the things they promised during the talks we held with them in December, January or February. And if they continue to do so, we are very determined to have an all-out strike in May.”


    In an interview to Radio Romania, Education Minister, Ligia Deca, says that the protesters are disgruntled with the present legislation. She pledges that the authorities are presently working on a new legislation that will include new provisions on the progressive payment starting from the average medium salary, a thing agreed upon with the trade unions.


    Ligia Deca: “The protests announced arent against the new package of laws we are presently working on. They are against the salary scale under the present salary law. This is another discussion. The measure included in the new legislation, namely that the salary scale has the medium wages as a starting point has been welcomed by the trade unions, which have cooperated with Education Ministry experts in this respect. They presented the Labour Ministry with a new payment scheme based on this value so that people may feel motivated to embrace a career in education.”


    But since government pledges can in no way compensate for the employees lack of money, we expect that protest actions like the one in Iasi to be seen all over the country, including in its capital city, Bucharest.


    (bill)

  • Record-high number of employees in Romania

    Record-high number of employees in Romania


    Romania seems to have reached the privileged scenario in which economic developments are disconnected from political influences. Over the 16 years since the country joined the European Union, it has had as many as 11 prime ministers, most of whom set out to revolutionise the countrys economic and social policies. But governmental instability, legislative inconsistency and the lack of inspiration that accompanied these policies have more often than not disrupted the labour market.



    Today, it seems to have finally stabilised, and Romania currently has nearly 6.7 million employment contracts registered in the national employee registry (REVISAL), 16% more than last year and a record for the past decade.



    Against a reduced overall population of 19 million, according to the preliminary results of the latest census, the number of employees is the largest in the last 10 years, the labour minister Marius Budăi also announced on his Facebook page.



    The most employees, over 1 million per sector, are reported in the processing industry and trade, followed by constructions, transport and logistics, with about half a million each.



    According to the labour minister, the REVISAL does not include certain categories of workers, which are nonetheless covered in the statistics put together by the National Tax Agency. This includes civil servants, military personnel or judiciary staff. The public sector remains the most important employer in Romania.



    The number of jobs filled in public institutions and authorities last year was 1,280,000, and 64% of them were in the central public administration, according to data made public by the finance ministry. More than 600,000 people were working in institutions fully funded from the state budget. The largest number of such jobs, 300,000, was in public education, followed by the Interior Ministry-over 125,000 and the Defence Ministry-nearly 75,000. The Health Ministry has 18,000 employees. And over 460,000 people were working in local public administration in November 2022.



    The year 2022, the mass media in Bucharest concluded, was quite intense for the Romanian employees and employers. Recruitment skyrocketed to a level above pre-COVID-19 figures, and human resources experts say this year companies will continue to compete fiercely over personnel.



    In their plans for 2023, employers remain cautious with respect to new recruitment and to salary increases, but one thing is certain: they have to keep their employees close, to give them balance and a sense of purpose, experts also explained. (AMP)


  • Measures for the application of international sanctions

    Measures for the application of international sanctions

    The impact on the national economy of international sanctions imposed on companies controlled by Russian entities due to the conflict in Ukraine must not be neglected. The protection of Romanian employees in these companies is a priority for the Romanian Government – the economy minister Florin Spătaru showed in a communique on Thursday. Romania must adapt and take measures as soon as possible to avoid chain crises – the minister said. His reaction comes in the context in which the government adopted an emergency ordinance, according to which companies from Romania, which are controlled by Russian entities targeted by sanctions, can continue their activity without having their accounts blocked, but only if they enter a state surveillance system.



    The aim is twofold: to introduce guarantees to ensure that the European Union’s sanctions are not affected, while protecting companies and the Romanian labor market. More specifically, a company from Romania subject to sanctions will send a request to the Economy Ministry, which will check whether it meets the operating conditions. If the application is approved, then the Ministry appoints a representative who will act as a permanent supervisor. Consequently, the funds and resources of the company will be unblocked.



    During this time, the supervisor will be able to participate, as an observer, in the meetings of the Shareholders General Assembly, of the Management Board and in other meetings regarding the company’s management. The observer will have access to all the locations where the company operates, as well as to all the documents received by the legal entity. The supervisor will also inform the Ministry when there are suspicions of non-compliance with the sanctions. If these suspicions are confirmed, then the company is denied the right to operate and is, once again, subjected to restrictions.



    The government emergency ordinance was adopted on the same day when the representatives of the approximately 2,600 employees of the company TMK-ARTROM with Russian shareholders from Slatina (south) and Reșița (south-west), producing GRE pipes, went to Bucharest to protest in front of the government’s headquarters. They were dissatisfied with the delays in the payment of their salaries and feared they might lose their jobs. Now, they can relax, just like all the Romanians who work in companies with Russian shareholders. According to minister Florin Spătaru, such companies mainly operate in the metallurgical industry, in which about 22,000 people are employed, and in the automotive industry, where it is estimated that 5,000 jobs can be affected, out of about 200,000. (LS)

  • Romania’s Labour Market during the pandemic

    Romania’s Labour Market during the pandemic

    According
    to the aforementioned survey, 19% of the respondents have lost their jobs, 16%
    have been laid off as part of the technical unemployment schemes, 14% didn’t
    have a job before the pandemic and aren’t working at present while 27% believe
    that nothing has changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.




    Many
    jobs are being done from home now and most of those who have been doing home
    working are from Bucharest and are people with higher education. This segment
    is preponderantly made up of women, young people with ages between 18 and 34
    and people with higher education. 22% of the interviewees have continued to go
    to their offices. The most stable domains proved to be the IT, HR and marketing.




    Here
    is Dragos Gheban managing partner of the hipo.ro recruiting platform with more
    on the present-day Romanian labour market. Employees from the
    bookkeeping-financial domains, transports, tourism, call-centers are looking
    for new jobs even outside their training field.


    Dragos
    Gheban: Following a survey on the career portal hipo.ro, the
    sectors with the most jobs right now are the IT software, IT hardware, then
    comes the financial sector, which includes banks and insurance companies and
    third comes the PR, which includes assistance services, sales departments,
    which have lately seen an upward trend, engineering, production, procurement,
    logistics and human resources. Our prediction for the coming period is that the
    opening of restaurants and hotels, the so-called HORECA sector will be offering
    fresh job opportunities as many people have lost their jobs and the companies
    operating in this field are going to need personnel in order to cope with the
    new summer season, which we expect to be a very busy one. Sales are also likely
    to see growth because companies are recovering and increasing their output.
    These fields I mentioned last are the ones we expect to see growth.




    Dragoș
    Gheban announces the junior candidates that the hipo.ro platform is launching a
    virtual job fair




    Dragos
    Gheban: There is good news for junior applicants as we are
    going to launch a virtual job fair in which we have been trying to centralize a
    large part of market opportunities targeting juniors and we have managed to
    gather so far several hundred opportunities. A suggestion that we may have for
    the junior applicants is that they invest more time in the recruitment process.
    And we recommend that they apply for several programmes in order to be sure
    they don’t miss this summer opportunity making the most of their career
    training time.




    The emotional aspect of this Covid crisis didn’t
    have a constant evolution either. After the initial panic, people, particularly
    women, started feeling worried. 40% of the respondents have declared themselves
    optimistic while 38% have reported tension and stress. Men proved to be more
    resilient, informed and pragmatic whereas women showed concern and reluctance
    when it comes to drawing up a back-up plan. People working in output facilities
    are more pragmatic and optimistic, whereas those from services are more anxious
    and concerned although they had the feeling of being part of a more privileged
    category of employees.




    48% of
    those who worked from home have expressed their strong desires to get back to
    their offices while 18% say they don’t want to return to their working places
    very soon. The most reluctant to return to their offices are people between 25
    and 45 years old, the hard core of the active labour force, those with higher
    education and Bucharest residents. 49%
    of the home workers say they feel uncomfortable or very uncomfortable with
    getting back to their offices or work places. 39% of the respondents say the
    salary level is very important while 38% of them have described professional
    training courses as of utmost importance.




    Romania’s
    labour market has been boosted through a series of measures taken by the
    government through its Labour Ministry. The country’s Labour Minister Violeta
    Alexandru has announced that assistance measures for the most affected
    categories of employees have been maintained; the most affected by the
    Coronavirus crisis are employees in the HORECA sector, in tourism and the
    showbiz.




    Violeta Alexandru: First, upon an initiative from the
    Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the government has agreed to maintain
    assistance measures for various categories of personnel, such as those from the
    companies whose activity has been restricted like restaurants, companies in the
    showbiz involved in staging events with a large participation, over 500 people,
    like theatres for instance, or those providing indoor playground facilities.
    For all these categories as well as for those in maternity and childcare
    leaves, those taking care of disabled children, assistance measures have been
    prolonged and they will continue to benefit from compensations and other forms
    of support.



  • Economic Prospects

    Economic Prospects


    According
    to Romania’s Finance Minister Florin Cîţu, the country’s
    economy is going to look a little bit different after this period of
    crisis; a lot of companies are going to invest in technology while a
    new challenge for the government is to create fresh jobs in order to
    keep at home the over one million Romanians who came back home during
    the crisis.





    In
    an interview to a TV channel Cîţu said that new jobs could be
    created in the retail sector, which currently needs 10,000 people, as
    well as in the industry of hotels, restaurants and cafes. The
    minister estimates that a lot of companies are going to invest in
    technology and more employees will be needed in these sectors as
    well. The corona crisis has created a lot of problems for the
    Romanian employees.





    According
    to the Labour Ministry, over 400 contracts have been terminated in
    this period, particularly in the retail, car and bike repair
    businesses, as well as in the sectors of processing and construction.
    The number of contracts suspended comes close to 600 thousand. On the
    other hand, Cîţu announced that the government is also considering
    incentives for investors in order to enable them to use their
    resources for investment and increase their output capabilities.





    At
    the same time all the resources Romania has are going to be channeled
    towards investment, the Romanian minister has explained adding the
    purchasing power will increase as inflation and interest rates are
    going down.



    ‘As
    for the inflation, things improved from one month to the other. The
    inflation rate went down and is continuing this trend in the coming
    period. And the same goes for interest rates, which means the
    purchasing power of the Romanians will increase against the lowering
    prices and interest rates. We have elements indicating the purchasing
    power will definitely increase in the coming period’, the Finance
    Minister has explained.



    As
    for the law on the pension raise starting September 1st,
    this creates sustainability issues with the budget for the following
    2 years, Florin Cîţu says. Furthermore, international financial
    institutions and rating agencies have pointed out that the issue
    represents a major risk for the health of the economy.





    According
    to Cîţu, for this law and for others endorsed by Parliament there
    are no funds and measures must be taken to avoid destabilizing the
    economy. We recall that last week, the government in Bucharest
    announced a partnership with the banks to help jump-starting the
    economy, as according to Florin Cîţu, the banks have both the
    expertise and the necessary channels to transfer money towards the
    economy’s best performing sectors.





    (translated
    by bill)

  • Promised solutions for penitentiary staff demands

    Promised solutions for penitentiary staff demands

    The authorities are aware that the Romanian prison system is riddled with complex problems. Both the employees in the system and the inmates are deeply dissatisfied, to such an extent that on August 1st, prison staff went on a work-to-rule strike. Prison guards demand improved working conditions, solutions to the personnel shortage problem, the reorganisation of detention facilities and the building of new prisons.



    After talks on Thursday with the unionists in the penitentiary system, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose announced the Cabinets willingness to take measures to improve the activity of the National Penitentiary Agency. The Government is considering, among other things, an increase in salaries as well as a review of the personnel requirements, in line with the current relevant standards. After the meeting, the head of the National Union of Penitentiary Workers, Stefan Teoroc, said that PM Mihai Tudose had also agreed to a change in the status of penitentiary workers:



    Ştefan Teoroc: “As far as our status is concerned, the Prime Minister was firmly in favour of changing the name into ‘Penitentiary Police, while as far as the number of jobs goes our position is that the same government resolution should increase the number of jobs in the penitentiary system from the current 15,000 to 20,000. We will analyse this together with the Justice Ministry, and even if this increase is to be made gradually, it should begin this year. The first step would be to add a number of jobs and to fill as many vacancies as possible.



    Teoroc also said he had asked the Prime Minister not to proceed with a planned 12,500,000 euro cut in the budget of the penitentiary system, and instead to use this amount for further hiring and for improving working conditions in prisons. He also warns that the unionists will not give up their protests until at least some of the promises made during Thursdays meeting have been met.



    On the other hand, the European Court for Human Rights calls on Romania to improve detention conditions. Prison overcrowding, inadequate sanitation facilities, lack of hygiene, and low food quality are some of the elements pointing to the severe failure of the prison system. In February, the director general of the National Penitentiary Agency, Marius Vulpe, announced that the fines imposed on Romania by the European Court for Human Rights over poor detention conditions totalled 1.6 million euro last year alone.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • March 7, 2016 UPDATE

    March 7, 2016 UPDATE

    The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who is on a state visit to Israel, met on Monday in Jerusalem with his counterpart, Reuven Rivlin. Romania, the President said, pays special attention to its relations with Israel, and his visit is intended to honour the tradition of the 68 years of constant diplomatic ties and, more importantly, to pave the way for further bilateral cooperation. The President added that Romania intends to become a regional centre in fighting anti-Semitism and promoting Holocaust education. Also on Monday, Iohannis had talks with PM Benjamin Netanyahu. On Tuesday, Iohannis will have a meeting with the president of the Israeli Parliament, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, and will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. From Jerusalem, Iohannis will travel to the Palestinian territories, for official talks with President Mahmoud Abbas.



    Five thousand employees of Dacia, the largest carmaker in Romania, controlled by the French group Renault, took part in a protest on Monday in Mioveni, in the south of the country. People are primarily disgruntled with the delays in the building of the Pitesti-Sibiu motorway. This is a major route, because it reduces the way out of Romania for the vehicles intended for export. The Mioveni-based plant loses 30 euro/vehicle because of the infrastructure. The unionists also demand legislative measures to discourage the imports of second-hand cars, changes in the labour legislation and in healthcare laws.



    The largest military exercises ever organized by South Korea began on Monday, against the backdrop of tensions with the communist regime in Pyongyang. Some 300,000 South-Korean troops and 15,000 American ones take part in the manoeuvres, which will end in late-April. The UN Security Council decided last week to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang, after its recent nuclear and ballistic tests. The draft resolution introduced by the USA was unanimously approved, including by North Koreas only ally, China.

  • New Labour Code Provisions

    New Labour Code Provisions

    As of January the 25th, Romania has a new Labour Code, which took effect after being signed by President Klaus Iohannis. According to the document, unpaid leaves and absences without appropriate reason, except for leaves of absence for professional training, will no longer be included in the calculation of length in service. As for sick leaves and parental leaves, they will no longer reduce the number of days of the annual leave an employee is entitled to. Secretary of State with the Labour Ministry, Codrin Scutaru, explains:



    “If, for instance, you are entitled to 21 days of annual leave, in the past you would have 3 days taken out if you were on sick leaves for two months that year. Now this is no longer valid, you have your entire annual leave.”



    If, for just reasons, an employee cannot take their annual leave, fully or in part, the employer has to grant the remaining days within 18 months, starting the next year, therefore there are fewer chances for people to lose their annual leave days. Not least, the wages of a temporary employee cannot be smaller than the wages of a permanent employee hired on the same position. However, this new Labour Code might very soon be revised again, because for the first time in Romania a citizen initiative is very likely to become a law. Just days ago, the initiative was approved by the Constitutional Court. Dumitru Costin, the leader of the National Trade Union Bloc, told Radio Romania that the proposal is designed to correct certain errors and to help young people get employment:



    “We have worked on a Labour Code text that would actually ensure balance and respect in the relationship between employees and employers. Our initiative regulates the access to employment, eliminating a lot of loopholes in the current law, which primarily affected the young, making them vulnerable. It also seeks to clarify the relationships between employers and employees and, not least, to ensure transparency and clarity in the Romanian labour market.”



    Under the law, a citizen initiative has to be signed by at least 100,000 eligible voters from at least one-quarter of the counties in Romania and from Bucharest. The initiative launched by the National Trade Union Bloc has been signed by 150,000 people and was praised by the president of the Constitutional Court of Romania, Augustin Zegrean, as an instance in which people were able to get organised, collect signatures and promote a very important piece of legislation.