STUDY Romania’s Trade Unions at the Crossroads Challenged by Legislative Reforms, Economic Crises and a Power-loss of 60 per cent VICTORIA STOICIU November 2016 n The 2011 labour law reform considerably diminished employees’ freedom of associa­tion and restricted the right to form unions to an extent that the ILO has criticized as non-compliant with its standards. n Through legal reforms, the collective agreement coverage rate dropped by two­thirds to only 35 per cent. The enterprise level is now the main level of collective bargaining, in effect crowding out representative trade union organisations. n The abolition of national collective bargaining in 2011 has effectively deprived union federations of their most important instrument of action, while new tripartite mech­anisms for minimum-wage determination have so far been unable to fill the gap. n Chronic strategic shortcomings and a legitimacy crisis had contributed to the trade unions’ inability to influence labour legislation reforms in 2011. The impact of eco­nomic recession was less severe for trade union membership than the economic transition period that preceded it. n While changes to the 2011 reform package appear to be critical, that would not solve the trade unions’ structural problems, which need to be addressed from within.