The amendment, three years ago, of the Labor Code and Social Dialogue Act has considerably diminished unions’ powers, which were already not doing great.
The Labor Code reform was the first blow. The crisis was at its height when Bucharest decided to reform labor law in 2011. Urged by the IMF, with which it has just contracted a €13-billion debt, Romania seeks to make its labor market more flexible. The then center-right government chooses the most liberal option there is. “The bill for the current Labor Code was drafted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania and the Foreign Investor Council, and the government kept it almost as it was,” explains Victoria Stoiciu, who specializes in social issues at the German Friedrich Ebert foundation (close to the social-democratic party).
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