The project "Tackling the Challenges of the new Labour and Social Dialogue Laws in Romania" was already predefined in the Framework Agreement between Switzerland and Romania (2009). The project proposal was revised several times in order to make it more independent from the difficult and rapidly changing context. After discussions between the project partners and the SCO on the one hand and between the project partners and the NCU on the other hand, the Steer-ing Committee for the Thematic Fund "Partnership and Ex-pert Fund" and SDC approved the project on May 19, 2014. The Swiss Embassy in Bucharest was consulted in August and does not see any political risk or any risk of misuse of the funds. Nevertheless, due to the difficult context de-scribed in the credit proposal the Embassy sees a risk of non-achieving the overall goal and regarding the sustainability of the project.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to an en-hanced commitment by social partners and government to build a stable climate enabling employers and trade union organizations to effectively engage in the promotion of decent work and the respect for the fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining.
The expected outcomes are:

• The use of evidence based advocacy tools in the development of solutions is promoted to broaden and enhance legislative/ policy making capacity for effective social dialogue, the promotion of de-cent work, fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining
  
• The organizational capacity of the union move-ment from all eight regions in Romania is boosted, based on the Swiss experience of good practices in capacity building

National trade union con-federations; National Employers’ Organisations; Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection; Labour Inspection; Employees

• A website will be created for the public, containing a collection of collective agreements and relevant court decisions in the field of labour and social dialogue. Research about the gap between the existing policies and their implementation/ enforcement is planned. A policy paper with proposed modifications of the present legislation will be elaborated in, as well as a catalogue of atypical employment forms.
• Outcome 2 focuses on experience exchange of trade unions representatives, labour inspectors and social partners between Romania and Switzerland, the visits, the preparation of a Workers’ Help Kit addressing non-unionised workers (incl. women), the elaboration of a policy paper on effective industrial relations and a subsequent campaign in 30 towns all over Romania.
  

Erreichte Resultate:  

• Social partners drafting and discussing public policies in the field of labour and social dialogue has been mobilized. The quality and intensity of the debate on industrial relations in the national fora has remarkably increased.
• The project facilitated the consent of all representative national trade unions on a joint position to modify the social dialogue law, which has been intensively discussed with employers and the government.
• 10’600 new members have been recruited through the organizational support of trade unions.
• The awerness of 500,000 people have been raised through public campaign to promote the right of association and collective bargaining in 2017
• Lead agency: Solidar Suisse (Swiss organisation)
• Main Romanian partner: CONECT Association for Dialogue, Employment and Migration

Intermediary Body: KEK-CDC Consultants
Executing Agency: SOLIDAR Switzerland

Phase 4 01.09.2014 - 31.08.2017   (Completed)