Brief Description of Employees’ and Employers’ Associations
Employees‘ and Employers’ Organisations are structured by level starting from the company level, where there are unions as organisations, sector level where there are employers’ organisations and union federations, and the national level where there are employers’ organisations and union confederations.
Rights and Importance of Trade Unions
The trade unions play a key role in collective bargaining, but they also have significant consultation and information rights. Also, based on a specific empowerment from their members, trade unions have the right to register petitions and to sustain their members’ interests in front of the tribunal.
Employees’ Representation in Management
The employees’ representatives are afforded some of the rights that the representative unions have in gaining access to relevant information, and being consulted on specific matters (such as when the employer wants to implement a new internal regulation).
Other Types of Employee Representative Bodies
European legislation on works councils was transposed in Romanian legislation, but few companies actually have such representative bodies. The role of a works council in the employer-employee relationship is reduced. Most of the rights that the works councils have, involve only receiving information from the company on important matters.
Health and safety committees have an important negotiation role. The employer’s representatives and the employees’ representatives discuss and agree not only upon health and safety measures, but also on social and economic matters within these structures.