Settlement of collective labour disputes in Romania

I. Legal framework

In the end of the XIX-th century and the beginning of the XX –th
century, Romania was faced to a complex process of changing.
Before the first world war, within the borders of the ancient kingdom,
our country hadn’t developed to much the industry, which would have
allowed the development of working class and the corresponding trade
union organization.
In this condition, we could hardly talk about an “industrial legislation”
as a term acknowledged by the juridical literature of that time, to provide
regulation on industrial relations and guarantee the minimum wage, the
freedom of association, the specific protection measures for work of
women and children, although art.27 of the 1866’s Constitution
guaranteed the association right and freedom of meeting.
The Unification of the country on December 1, 1918 had as a result
the setting up and subsequently, for a certain period of time, the
strengthening of the national unitary Romanian State and also a major
influence on the economic and social potential of the country.
Romania was not any more an exclusively agricultural country; it also
had industrial branches with a strong development trend and able to
complete with the neighbors country’s industries having a multitude and
a better organized working class.
In this context, the Parliament tried to draw out the legal framework
required by the social and economic life, according to the international
regulations which Romania was or was to be a party to.
The Law on the settlement of collective labour disputes, promulgated
by the Decree no. 3703/September 4, 1920 and published in the Official
Gazette no.122/September 5, 1920 was the first piece of legislation to
meet these requirements, and it’s been subject to a lot of modification
since then.
According to art.4 of this law, the collective cessation of the work on
grounds related to work conditions, regardless the initiative, cannot take
place before the fulfillment of a conciliation procedure, in which the
workers’ representatives, the employers’ representatives and those of the
Ministry of Labour should participate.
Under the provisions of art.14 and art.25 the 1920 law assimilated the
collective labour contracts with the agreements reached through a
conciliation and arbitration procedure in which the workers and the

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employers took part; thus, this first law of the Ministry of Labour
regulated the collective agreements regime for 10 years.
The law of trade unions, promulgated by the Decree Regal no.
2207/April 27, 1921 and published in the Official Gazette no.41/May 26,
1921 was the second piece of legislation, meant to create the necessary
framework in order to acquire the legal personality of the trade unions
associations, which existed before but could not legally operate since
they were not recognized.
According to art.1 in this law, which is similar to art.3 of the French
law on trade unions, the professional trade unions have as a purpose the
study, the defenses and the development of workers’ professional
interests.
Finally, the Law on labour disputes, promulgated by the Decree no.
4558/December 31, 1929 together which the Regulation for its
implementation, was published in the Official Gazette n. 15/January 20,
1930.
During the period of centrally planned economy (the socialist perioad)
these laws have been abrogated, since the industrial relation could be
only a social industrial relation regulated by the law (the Labour Code -
Law no.10/1972), the piece of legislation being the main source of law
stipulating the rights and the obligations of the employees as a
consequence of performing a certain work.
After December 1989 and continued after the changes occurred in
autumn 2000, the legislation needed to change at the level of new
realities, and gave the employees the opportunity to uphold their claims
formulated through specific means, out of which the starting of collective
labour dispute, the work cessation and the strike have been often used.
A series of normative acts have been drawn up since 1989, namely
the:
- Law no.13/1991, abrogated by the Law no.130/1996 on the collective
labour agreements, and this was modified by the Law no.143/1997;
- Law no.14/1992 on salary;
- Law no.15/1992 on the settlement of collective disputes abrogated by
Law no.168/1999;
- Law no.54/1991 on trade unions, abrogated by the Law no.54/2003;
- Law no 31/1991 for diminishing the duration of working time under 8
hours/day for the employees who wok particular, harmful, difficult or
dangerous condition;
- Law no.6/1992 on paid holidays and other holidays of employees;

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- Law no.130/1996 republished with many modifications in 1999, of
collective bargaining;
- Law no.168/1999 of collective conflicts;
- Law no.365/2001, the employer’s law; and many other Governmental
Decisions which transferred an important part of industrial relations
regulation from the legal regulation field to collective bargaining (in
present is in Parliament from 2006 a project for modifications, still in
parliamentary debate).
- Law no.53/2003-Labour Code, who suffered many modifications until
present.
The Law of settlement of collective labour disputes (no.15/1991)
came into force on February 11, 1991 when a massive strike of railway
workers from Iasi and Timisoara took place, paralyzing the local
transportation and causing incalculable damages to the national economy.
In this context, some trade unions were, from the beginning, hostile to
the respective law, although its draft was discussed and debated between
the Government and the trade unions for a long time.
Presenting briefly the Law on settlement of collective labour disputes,
that drafts has been processed out after consultations with the experts of
the International Labour Office and, as we have already mentioned, with
trade unions.
Between 1991 and 1997, different issues concerning the collective
industrial relations were subjects to dialogue between trade unions and
employers, even if it wasn’t used very often. We should stress that the
claims of the employees presented by the trade unions have not been
legitimated and accepted by the employers’ organization all the times.
During this period of time, the absence of social dialogue had also
certain undesirable results; this is the situation of some labour disputes
which have been turned, in several cases, into strike.
A analyze of collective labour disputes occurred until 1991 to this
moment should start from the following three remarks:
• the intensification of the tripartite dialogue, which had as a
result the drawing up of the Law on institutionalization of
this dialogue, being proposed the setting up of Social and
Economic Council as a body with important task in
mediating the social conflicts and improving the current
legal framework in this field (Law no.109/July 2, 1997 on
the organization and operation of Social and Economic
Council). Another consultative corps is the Social Dialogue

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 Commissions; organize at beginning just in some ministry,
after in all ministry and prefectures.
• The maturation of trade union movement, generated by
certain specific economic difficulties during the transition
period and the amplification of certain ways of protest which
have not been coordinated and led by trade unions, having as
result several so-called “spontaneous strikes” or
“spontaneous revolts” which infringed the legislation in
force.
• The particular political –economical context of this period.
Analyzing the statistical data, one can see that the economic
difficulties to the transition period and their social effects couldn’t be
influenced correspondingly neither by the social protection measures
adopted nor by the existing means for disputes settlement, provided
by labour legislation. In other way during the electoral’s year trade
unions action appear that are more intense.
collective labour dis putes
700
653
600
500
400 384
324 352
300 319 285
260
200 216 195
141
100 103 114 121 79 104 96 86 11692
0
93

94

98

01

05

08
91

92

95

96

97

99

00

02

03

04

06

07

09
19

19

19

19

19

19

19

20

20

20

20

20

20

20
19

19

20

20

20

number of employees participating in collective labour dispute s

2009 104.701
204.798
2006 72.767
79.736
184072
2003 243.372
394.571
2000 369509
1620907
1549389
1997 1051680
1.271.367
614959
1994 694358
771238
646468
1991 498482
400188
0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000 1600000 1800000

In the above diagram I presented the number of collective

labour disputes, declared and registered by Ministry of Labour and
National Institute of Statistics.

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 I think is important to specific that, in reality, there were many
other actions by the trade unions or by the employees, but they failed
to comply with the conditions stipulated by the Law no.15/1992 and
after wards by the Law no.168/1999 (they had other object that the
one stipulated by the Law or they didn’t follow the procedure
required) being not covered by the statistical data presented above. So
in this case statistical imagine are just a first contact with reality but
not the all imagine of this.
At the same time, I specify that the number of registered
disputes in 1991 refers to those which took place after the adaptation
of the Law nr.15/1991 (February, 11) considered at been the first
period, until 1999 and the Law no.168/1999 when begin a new period,
it has been organized an information and index system in the labour
disputes field which has been improved in time.
From a brief analyze of social and economic reality, one can
see that the number and the magnitude of the collective labour
disputes have decreased since the enforcement of Law: from 216
disputes in 1991 to 195 in 1992; after that the number increased again
reaching at 384 disputes in 1994 decreased gradually to 319 in 1995,
285 in 1996 and 260 in 1997; after that the number increased again at
352 in 1998 reaching a maximum of 653 in 1999, the top number for
all the period, when it begins to constant decreased from 1999 to
2003.
In order to complete the analyze I included an additional
indicator to the number of disputes, namely the “number of employees
participating in the collective labour disputes”.
The evaluation of the indicator is quite similar to the evaluation
of the first one (number of disputes), reaching a maximum in 1999-
2000.

II CONCILIATION PROCEDURES

As the above data show have been registered 4042 collective labour
disputes between 1992 and 2009, in which were involved more than 7,5
million employees (the registered until 2009 is 7.508.110 employees).
The analysis of the above data underlines, in principle, the efficiency
of the current collective labour disputes settlement system which, by its own
definition, acknowledges not only the right to strike but also regulates some
preliminary procedures meant to analyze the claims and to have as final

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result the complete or partial settlement of an important number of collective
labour disputes before they become acute and the strike start.
It should be also stressed that the number of disputes witch have not
been settled is high enough, keeping the disputes in a latent situation,
without taking into account the disputes witch have been only partially
settles and which can also generate sometimes different types of strike.
Also, in order to improve the mechanism of labour disputes
settlement, there was the version of Law no.15/1991 abrogated by the Law
168/1999 in witch was introduced of certain mediation mechanism as well
as the reconsideration of arbitration procedure. Introductions of these
procedures (mediation and arbitration) within the mechanisms of labour
settlement improve and make more effective the whole system.
Concerning the procedure of labour disputes settlement, the law
provides two different levels of conciliation:

CONCILIATION provided by Art.14-16 of the Law no.168/1999

In all the cases when there are conditions for starting a labour dispute
within an enterprise, the trade union body or, if there is no trade union body,
the elected representatives of the employees shall notify the management of
the enterprise about this situation.
The notification shall be made in writing, presenting the claims of the
employees including their reasons as well as settlement proposals and the
management of the enterprise is obliged to receive and to register it.
The discussions between the trade unions and the employers shall be
registered in a minute.
The employer is compelled to answer in writing to the trade union
body or to the representatives or the employees within 48 hours since the
receipt of the notification, presenting his point of view for each one of the
formulated claims.
If the employer has not answered to all the formulated claims or,
although he replied, no consensus has been reached, the collective labour
disputes shall be considered as started and the procedure goes on to the level
of conciliation.

Conciliation organized by the Ministry of Labour1 at the conflict of

interests

1
Ministry of Labour Social Solidarity and Family (MINISTRY OF LABOUR )

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 If a conflict of interests starts, after fulfilling conciliation procedure, the
trade union or the representatives or the employees shall notify the ministry
through its local body, the territorial directorates of labour, now part of the
social benefits territorial agency, in order to continue the conciliation.
The notification, in two copies, is also submitted in writing and includes
the date and the signatures; it shall also include at least the following
information:
- the enterprise in which the conflict of interests occurred (indicating
also the seat, the name of director and his phone number);
- the object of the conflict of interests (the claims)
- the proof that the requirements of the direct conciliation have been
fulfilled;
- the indication of the persons delegated to represent the parties to
conciliation.
Within 24 hours since the registration of the notification, the Ministry
of Labour gives a registration number to dispute and designates its delegate
who shall participate in the conciliation, of the labour dispute; the delegate
must take the following measures:
a) to communicate the notification to the manager of enterprise
within 48 hours from his/her designation;
b) to settle the conciliation day and to convoke the parties within
seven days since the registration of notification.
The trade unions or the employees, as the case maybe, as well as the
employers shall elect their delegations consisting of two to five persons
providing then with a written authorization in order to participate in the
conciliation.
The conciliation procedure shall be completed on day settled for
conciliation, excepting the cases when the parties have mutually agreed on
its continuation.
The role of Ministry of Labour’s delegate is limited enough by the
law. He verifies the powers of the parties and persuades them to act for
reaching an agreement.
I deem that the opportunities to influence the parties and to settle the
dispute are also limited due to limited competencies of Ministry of
Labour’s delegate stipulated by law.
I mention that there is a number of 2-3 employees specialized in
settlement of collective labour disputes in each county; these employees
came mainly fro the labour legislation and remuneration offices. Unlike the
employees’ delegates, who were trained in the county and abroad with the
updated techniques and methods of conciliation, the employers’ delegates

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and especially the delegates of the Ministry of Labour attend, only in
several cases, such training courses. Many of those who attended such
courses aboard left the legislation offices or requested their transfer.
The single utilized training opportunity was a regional share of
experience, I which the problem of collective labour disputes settlement was
only indirectly debated, such kind of meeting were rarely organized.

A strike could be declared only if all the possibilities for settlement

the collective labour disputes through the above mentioned procedures have
been used and if the starting date has been notified to the management board
by the organizers with 48 hours before.

ARBITRATION

Arbitration, as a method for collective labour disputes settlement, has

been rarely used since the present of the Law no.168/1999.
The most arbitration procedures took place in 1991 by implementing
the previsions of art.10 of Law no.14/1991, which stipulated that “if, on the
occasion of wage negotiations for 1991, occur divergence which cannot be
settled within thirty calendar days, the system of arbitration regulated by the
Law no.15/1991 shall apply”.
In reality, after the end of 1991, year when 10 arbitration procedures
took place, in the following years their number was insignificant, and uses
the arbitration only if these are a strike. By the end of the year 2009 took
place 2.
The Law 168/1999 considered arbitration like a way to stopped a
conflict, but give the parties the alternative to used or not used this
facultative method.
In last time this procedure became more known, for example in 2009
was 1 arbitration, which finished the interest conflicts.
If the strike exceeded 20 days and the involved parties have not
reached an agreement and if the continuation of the continuation of the
strike could affect the national interests or certain humanitarian interests,
the Ministry of Labour can request the settlement of strike by an a
arbitration commission composed by three arbitrators. Every year, the
Ministry of Labour issued an order in which have been nominated the
arbitrators out of the specialists in the economic, juridical, technical field as
well as from other profession, after consultation with the trade unions and
the employer’s organizations.

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 MEDIATION

In the situation in which the conflict of interest was not been settled
by conciliation procedure, organized Ministry of Labour, the trade unions
and employers in agreement can to initiate the mediation procedure.
The Law no.168/199 in art.28 specifies that the mediation procedure
is established in National collective Labour agreement.
If both parties accept to use the mediation procedure in 48 hours they
meet to choose the mediator from the list of mediators appointed by Ministry
of Labour through its local body, the DDSSF. In this way, bout mediation
labour conflicts, if the parts are agree to start mediation, in 48 hours, every
part will propose a mediator list from the mediators named by the ministry
of labour, at the level at aria where it have address.
If the parts don’t set of a commune mediator at the first meeting, the
procedure is stopped. In the case the part set of a commune mediator they
follow the next steps:
They established the mediator by convenient.
In maximum 8 days the mediator is obligated to call both parts. The
employers and trade unions will have an equal number of participants.
. The parts are obligated to put all the dates are necessary in 48 hours.
If the mediator is not clear about that, he can solicit any utile information, in
max. 72 hours from receipt the case.
The mediation can’t last more then 30 days from receipt the case. In
other case the mediation are finishes and pass at the next level.
The mediators came mainly from the labour legislation and
remuneration offices, from trade unions, and employers’ local organization,
which were not trained with updates techniques and methods of mediation.
In this moment is a normative project for mediators submit to
Parliament who wants to establish this like a professional worker.

The Strike

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 Totally of strike from 1992 to 2009 was 345 strike, with 6.691.745
strikers, 4.089.297 man/day not working , and the media of days not worked
by striker is 2,04. As years average means 20,2 strikes/year, and 393.632
stikers under the many EU states.
number the strike 1992-2009

100
80 85

60 54
40
30 33 27
20 15 15
9 10 13 9 11 8 12 8
0 5 2 1
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Figură 1

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