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The lack of social dialogue has grown into an acute issue in Romania, and the government has a refractory attitude towards all social partners and particularly to trade unions, Razvan Gae, vice-president of the Sanitas health trade union and member of the Executive Committee of the European Public Service Unions (EPSU) Federation, told a press conference on Tuesday.
"The lack of social dialogue has grown into an acute issue in Romania, ever since last year, since the outbreak of the pandemic. Non-compliance with the European Pillar of Social Rights and the anti-union climate have determined EPSU along with the European Transport Workers' Federation to take action and go on site where there is need for this and to signal to the colleagues in Brussels the practices that are being used in Romania, the lack of social dialogue and the intimidation of trade unionists in particular," Gae said.
"The government has a refractory attitude towards all social partners, not only trade unions, but towards trade unions in particular. It treats trade unions as personae non-gratae, claiming that the unions only demand their rights and don't think of the good of the society. Moreover, public service unions have been slammed for only consuming and producing nothing, unlike multinationals and others of the like which, in the government's opinion, raise the economy; yet they forget that value-added is produced strictly through Romanian public services. On the other hand, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan was designed without consulting the unions," said the Sanitas representative, Agerpres informs.
In his turn, Frank Moreels, president of the European Transport Workers' Federation, said that he is "very concerned" about the way trade unions are forced to operate here in Romania.
We advocate the resumption of social dialogue with the unions and respect for Romanian employees. This is why I came to Romania. Today we will launch a Declaration, because we can see that there are social problems in this country. Romania is not the only country with such problems. We are talking about compliance with the Collective Bargaining Agreements, about respect for trade union rights and we want to call for a change in the approach in this country, for engaging in dialogue and for respecting the rights of the unions we represent, said Frank Moreels.
The European Transport Workers' Federation organized on Tuesday a press conference on the "Resumption of social dialogue in Romania, a necessity!"
