New provisions on collective redundancies under Romanian Labor law

Recently, the Labor Code has been subject to an amendment that has introduced several new aspects related to the employers’ rights and obligations when carrying out collective redundancy procedures.

The intention of the legislator was to achieve closer interlinking between the different steps of the collective redundancies procedure even if, at first sight, it appears that the obligations of the employers are stricter than under the former regulations. On the other hand, one should also note that these amendments aim to achieve a complete transposition of the acquis in the collective redundancies’ field and to remedy the shortcomings outlined in the May 2006 Monitoring Report on Romania with respect to the information and consultation procedures and of the administrative capacity of the local authorities in mitigating the effects of collective redundancies.

Thus, the new enactment maintains the general time-frame of the procedure but, in addition, it provides for a more comprehensive understanding of the steps that need to be taken throughout the procedure. First of all, the employers are still obliged to initiate consultations with the trade union or the employees’ representatives, whatever the case may be; but in order to have a proper consultation, they are also obliged to provide in due time relevant information related to the dismissals (each topic falling under the obligation to inform is expressly stipulated under the law) to the trade union/ employees’ representatives. The same information needs also to be sent to the local labour inspectorate and to the local employment agency.

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