Trade unions and the amendment of the labour code in Romania
Abstract Employment relations, as well as issues of social and labour-market reforms or the social dialogue, have been extensively treated by various researches interested in the East and Central European region. In this context, much attention has been paid to the changing roles of trade unions, the problem of re-making ancient structures perverted by their more or less collaboration with the Communist parties from the region and the emergence of new structures in search for legitimisation, the difficulties of trade unionism in articulating and representing interests, an aspect that is directly related to their organisational problems, the relations with the governmental authorities and with the employers' organisations in the tripartite framework, as well as the nature of the tripartism in reuniting social partners and state. This article focuses on national organised labour in Romania in relation to the 2005 Labour Code amendment. This specific level of national interest representation is privileged in order to highlight the peculiarities of recognised representative labour organisations in the post-Communist period. The main assumption is that trade unions are facing a particular policy interest with a shift from fragmentation and unstable co-operation to a ‘common position’. Thus this contribution assesses the determinants defining labour's collaboration while shedding light on state – trade union relations.
Ten Years of Post-Communist Central Eastern Europe: Labour's Tenuous Foothold in the Regulation of the Employment Relationship
Ten years on from the 'revolutions' of 1989 which overthrew the state command economies of Central Eastern Europe (CEE), this article explores progress in the democratic reform of industrial relations as a key area of change. Worker interest representation both at state level, at the intermediate industry level and at the workplace level is reviewed and analysed. The competing dynamics of building tripartite and corporatist institutions, encouraged by the ILO, and the neoclassical thrust of the transformation process, which has encouraged deregulation and decentralization, are explored. Trade unions' focus on and faith in this institution-building has arguably deflected attention from developing deeper processes of democratizing industrial relations. This leaves labour with a weak influence over the reregulation of the employment relationship, as the CEE embarks on harmonization prior to accession to an enlarged EU.
Labour Market Governance in Eastern Europe
This article provides an overview of recent changes in the former Soviet Union and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. State regulation has been reduced, both through privatization and through the relaxation of statutory prescriptions, though new `framework' legislation has been implemented. The former commitment to full employment has been abandoned and unemployment has risen, often dramatically. Trade unions - often the `reformed' successors of the old official institutions - often retain significant nominal representative status, but have little effective regulatory power. Though most countries have introduced peak-level tripartite machinery, real decision-making takes place at company level where management is in the driving seat.