Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Romania (Ratification: 1957)

The Committee takes note of the Government's detailed report and its reply to the comments of the World Confederation of Labour and the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Federation on Acts Nos. 13, 15 and 54 of 1991 concerning, respectively, collective labour agreements, the settlement of collective labour disputes and trade unions.

The Committee recalls that its previous comments concerned the following points:

1. The right of trade union organizations to organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes (Article 3):

- sections 38 to 43 of Act No. 15 establishing a compulsory arbitration procedure which may be set in motion at the sole initiative of the Minister of Labour when a strike has lasted for 20 days and its continuation "is likely to affect the interests of the national economy ...";

- section 30 of Act No. 15 which provides that the Supreme Court of Justice "may suspend the start or continuation of the strike for a maximum of 90 days if major interests of the national economy ... are affected";

- section 45(4) of Act No. 15 which requires one-third of the normal activities of essential services to be maintained in services which are not essential in the strict sense of the term;

- section 3 of Act No. 15 which defines collective labour disputes;

- section 47 of Act No. 15, which provides for heavy penalties of up to six months' imprisonment if a strike is called in disregard of section 45(4) and others of the Act;

- section 13(3) of Act No. 15 which prohibits persons who have declared a strike without respecting the terms laid down by the Act from being elected as trade union delegates;

- sections 32(3) and 36(3) of Act No. 15 which establish the financial liability of strike organizers if they refuse to pursue negotiations during the strike, and similar liability if the conditions for starting or pursuing the strike have not been met.

The Committee considers that the right to strike is one of the essential means available to workers' organizations to promote and defend the economic and social interests of their members, and it has always stressed that the limitation or prohibition of this right should be confined to public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority or to services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, or to situations of accute national crisis. It therefore considers that any compulsory arbitration procedure or any possibility of suspending the right to strike should be limited to the cases mentioned above and accompanied by appropriate guarantees to protect workers who are thus deprived of an essential means of defending their occupational interests.

The Committee also considers that, should they so wish, workers' organizations should be able to participate in defining minimum services along with employers and public authorities and that, in the event of disagreement, the matter should be settled by an independent body.

As regards the penalties that can be imposed on persons who fail to respect the conditions for starting or pursuing a strike, the Committee emphasizes that penal sanctions should only be imposed where there are violations of strike prohibitions which are in conformity with the principles of freedom of association and that, in these cases, the sanctions should be proportionate to the offences committed; penalties of imprisonment should not be imposed in the case of peaceful strikes.

The Committee asks the Government to take the necessary measures to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention and the principles of freedom of association as set out above.

2. The Committee also asks the Government to provide a copy of the text repealing Act No. 1/1970 respecting labour organization and discipline in State Socialist Units.

3. The right of workers to elect their representatives in full freedom (Article 3):

- section 9 of Act No. 54 which provides that only Romanian citizens employed in the production unit may be elected to trade union office;

- section 13(3) of Act No. 15 under which delegates of the workers in the conciliation process can only be elected from among workers with three years' seniority in the unit or, if the unit has been in operation for less than three years, workers who have been in it since its foundation.

The Committee recalls that, to be consistent with the Convention, the legislation should allow foreign workers to be eligible for trade union office, at least after a reasonable period of residence in the country. As regards the requirement of belonging to the enterprise in order to be eligible for trade union office, the Committee considers that it would be desirable either to admit as candidates persons who have previously been employed in the enterprise, or to exempt from the requirement of belonging to the enterprise a reasonable proportion of the officers of an organization.

It asks the Government to take the necessary steps to bring the relevant provisions of the legislation into conformity with the Convention.

4. The Committee asks the Government in its next report to indicate any measures that have been taken or are contemplated to amend the above-mentioned provisions of the legislation in order to bring it into conformity with the Convention.