Collective employment contracts abolished, fixed-term contracts extended to three years
The Government is considering assuming responsibility in Parliament over a new labour code, which is set to abolish the single countrywide collective employment contract, extend the period of fixed-term individual employment contracts and punish by jail the employers who hire informally.
Premier Emil Boc yesterday said the future Labour Code would
make the labour market more flexible and would help people find a
job faster, but his opinion is not shared by trade unions, which
say they will decide on a protest calendar today.
The Government assuming responsibility in Parliament is a procedure
that speeds up the enforcement of a law, bypassing the Parliament
as lawmaker in the process, but it can lead to the submission of a
censure motion. If the motion is not submitted or if it does not
withstand the vote, the law is considered as adopted and sent for
promulgation without needing to be debated in Parliament.
The labour code version supported by the Government is also backed
by the Romanian-American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). Some of the
proposals for the draft law have come from the Foreign Investors
Council (CSI).
According to the latest variant of the labour code, the duration of
the fixed-term individual contract will rise from 24 months to 36
months.