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.