Collective bargaining: Romania shows the way

A new law on collective bargaining and social dialogue came into force in Romania on December 25th last. After years of policy-driven decline, it was the result of intense, ground-level work by workers and their unions and clear support from the European Union for democracy at work. It is a prime example of how to implement the 2022 directive on minimum wages and collective bargaining and can offer a template for the EU elsewhere. The commission must apply the lessons and act to move forward through collective bargaining across all member states.

However, the pressure for reform in Romania did not only come from above. On the ground, trade unions in Romania had been actively innovating in their collective-bargaining practices in recent years—the clearest example being the agreement concluded in the banking sector in 2018. Years after the dismantling of sectoral collective bargaining, the Romanian banking trade-union federation, FSAB, negotiated an agreement with the newly established employer organisation, CPBR. Building on intense organising efforts, supported by UNI Europa, banking workers and their union secured major advances in wages, severance pay, on-the-job training, holidays and—last but not least—guaranteed common lunch breaks. Overcoming the legislative obstacles to sectoral agreement demonstrated the willingness of the social partners in Romania (trade unions and employers) to negotiate beyond the company level.