On 21st July 2017, the Parliament approved the draft law containing amendments to 36 articles of the Labour Code aiming at establishing a balanced legal framework regulating the area of employment relations, creating better business operation conditions in the interest of both, employers and employees, and therefore, improving the investment climate in the country.
Over a period of more than 8 months, EBA, together with other business associations, has made considerable efforts in order to develop and promote the amendments necessary for modernizing the existent labour legislation, through active involvement in the works of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister’s Working Group mandated with developing the amendments to the Labour Code, delegating Ecaterina Chirilenco, the EBA Lobby & Policy Manager in this regard, and also, through regular participation in weekly meetings in the Parliamentary Committees over the last month, to support further approval by the Parliament of the amendments to the Labour Code.
The revised legal framework in the area of labour relations leads to harmonious regulations between the interests of employers and the interests of the employees, considering that the current Labour Code provisions contain predominantly imperative rules, compared to fewer dispositional rules. Therefore, the main focus of the approved draft law is to restore and ensure an equilibrated regulation of the relations between employers and employees.
In any case, the reform of the Labour Code is essential in order to stimulate and attract additional investments into the production sectors oriented towards exports and which require an intensive labour force, as well as in the services sectors. Acquiring more flexibility in regulation will allow a better adjustment of the companies to the dynamic developments of the market.
It is important to highlight that, the developed amendments take account of the labour regulation practices of other countries, both in the region and of the EU Member States, in particular due to the fact that their legislations provide for more competitive conditions on the labour market, without burdening business operation and halting investment attraction, which constitutes an advantage to both, the employers, due to business operation opportunities without applying excessive administrative burden, and the employees, due to opportunities in creation and maintaining of jobs.
Note: In order to consult the version of the draft law amending the Labour Code and the information note to the draft access the following links: