The Romanian labour market needs a well-thought approach, says FIC

The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) has signaled in the past 2-3 years that its members are anticipating increasing strains on the Romanian labour market because starting with 2015-2016 their members have reported increasing problems in finding adequate workforce.

2018-11-16 14:06:56

FIC notes with concern that the solutions do not seem to emerge in a coordinated way, and the legislative or public policy interventions on the labor market seem to be the result of partial conclusions drawn by several stakeholders who do not interact with each other. Such an approach, in a labor market that is already tense due to the increasing deficit, may have effects that are contrary to what is expected.

In this respect, FIC notes that there are three directions of action for public policies whose separate but also cumulative effects must be weighed carefully: 1) several initiatives to modify the legislative framework on the relationship between trade unions and employers; 2) measures to increase individual incomes - increases of the minimum wage and the entire dynamics of wages in the private and public sector, and also the increase of pensions; 3) short-term and medium-term measures designed to alleviate the shortages in the labor market.

FIC considers that no law with an economic impact should be adopted without consulting the main trade unions and employers, but also the active population, so that social dialogue to become a real tool adapted to present and future needs.

The opinion of FIC members is that the minimum wage level should not be decided administratively but be the result of negotiations between trade unions and employers on the basis of objective criteria agreed in advance and with a foreseeable timetable.

FIC members believe it is very important that all labor market policies are addressed in a unitary system as part of a long-term strategy, not be adopted with unwarranted speed and without serious consultation with all relevant actors.