Trade unions lodge complaint with ILO against government
Published: 9 August 2009
By emergency ordinance No. 37, which was published in the Official Gazette of 22 April 2009 and applicable with immediate effect, the Romanian government (Guvernul României [1]) decided to suspend all public servants holding management positions in all independent public, non-governmental institutions and to have new persons put in place, who were nominated by the county councils or prefectures and appointed by the relevant ministry.[1] http://www.gov.ro/
In April 2009, the Romanian government issued an emergency ordinance stipulating the removal of public servants from management positions in independent agencies, such as the Labour Inspection Office, as well as the appointment of persons nominated by the national or local governments. The National Trade Union Confederation Cartel Alfa subsequently lodged a complaint with the International Labour Organization (ILO) regarding a breach of ILO Convention No. 81 of 1947.
Reasons for trade union complaint
By emergency ordinance No. 37, which was published in the Official Gazette of 22 April 2009 and applicable with immediate effect, the Romanian government (Guvernul României) decided to suspend all public servants holding management positions in all independent public, non-governmental institutions and to have new persons put in place, who were nominated by the county councils or prefectures and appointed by the relevant ministry.
The emergency ordinance also affected the Labour Inspection Office (Inspecţia Muncii, IM) and its local branches.
Content of claim lodged with ILO
Following the issuing of emergency ordinance No. 37, the National Trade Union Confederation Cartel Alfa (Confederaţia Naţională Sindicală Cartel Alfa, Cartel Alfa) filed a complaint against the Romanian government with the International Labour Organization (ILO). The trade union confederation requested the ILO to examine the situation established by emergency ordinance No. 37, as well as to oblige the Romanian government to observe the provisions of ILO Convention No. 81 of 1947, the so-called Labour Inspection Convention.
Cartel Alfa claims that ‘the replacement of labour inspectors, many of whom hold management positions, and who have the required qualifications and unanimously recognised expertise, pursues merely political aims. The only merit of the newly appointed persons is that they are affiliated to one of the political parties forming the current ruling coalition government; otherwise, they have no experience in labour matters’.
The country’s coalition government is formed by the Democratic Liberal Party (Partidul Democrat-Liberal, PDL), to which the country’s president Traian Basescu is close, and the Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat, PDS).
Trade union representatives say that the ordinance violates Romanian law which, until this year, had been compliant with ILO Convention No. 81.
Law No. 108 of 1991 concerning IM lays down that labour inspectors are civil servants who are ‘independent of changes of government and of improper external influences’. This provision falls in line with Article 6 of ILO Convention No. 81 which states: ‘The inspection staff shall be composed of public officials whose status and conditions of service are such that they are assured of stability of employment and are independent of changes of government and of improper external influences’.
The trade unions perceive the ordinance as ‘a serious government abuse’, since international labour standards take precedence over domestic legislation in labour law matters.
Cartel Alfa also decries that, although the confederation made public its decision to complain to the ILO, the ‘government turned a deaf ear to all of this, placing their political interests above everything’.
Commentary
Cartel Alfa’s indignation seems justified, because, prior to filing the complaint with the ILO, the confederation had petitioned all of the country’s democratic institutions, of which none has ever responded to the petition.
This lack of reaction prompted Cartel Alfa to draw the ILO’s attention yet again to other breaches of international labour conventions by the Romanian government, including the breach of freedom of association and protection of the right to organise (ILO Convention No. 87 of 1948), and the breach of the right to organise and collective bargaining (ILO Convention No. 98 of 1949).
In reply to these complaints, the ILO expert committees made a number of recommendations to the Romanian government, such as setting up labour courts, amending social legislation and commencing negotiations on minimal services in the case of a strike.
Constantin Ciutacu, Institute of National Economy, Romanian Academy
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
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