Cancellation of job description for micro-enterprises turns employees into slaves

The amendment by the Government of the labour legislation by eliminating the obligation of micro-enterprises to draw up in writing the job description for employees changes the status of millions of citizens from employees to slaves, it is mentioned in a release issued on Thursday by the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS). "In a sovereign contempt for the Constitution and for Romania's status as a member state of the European Union, the Government, surrounded by a legislative delirium, adopts in the meeting of April 28, 2021 two pieces of legislation that will generate huge problems in labour relations They will affect the rights of millions of workers. (...) Regarding the Emergency Ordinance for amending and supplementing Law no. 53/2003 - Labour Code (...), this comes with the thesis of excluding the obligation of employers to issue the job description and the internal regulations, establishing their possibility to verbally communicate to the employees the attributions incumbent on them. A verbal communication of the attributions of an employee is not in accordance with the principles and the law of the European Union. (...) Once the job description is cancelled, millions of citizens status will turn from employee to slave," the BNS release reads. The National Trade Union Bloc emphasizes that, on June 20, 2019, EU Directive 2019/1152 of the European Parliament on the transparency and predictability of working conditions in the European Union was adopted, and in the preamble of this Directive, Principle no. 7 of the European Pillar of Social Rights stipulates that workers have the right to be informed in writing when they are employed about their rights and obligations arising from their employment relationship, including any probationary period. Romania has the obligation to transpose this Directive by August 1, 2022, the BNS notes. "But what does the Romanian Government do? Instead of transposing the Directive into national legislation, it introduces through this Ordinance the thesis according to which the employees of a micro-enterprise will be verbally informed about the attributions they are to perform! Verbally! The categories of employers that could be excluded from the application of the Directive are expressly provided in its text, and micro-enterprises are not among them! The exclusion of micro-enterprises from the drafting of the Internal Regulation would make it impossible for these micro-enterprise employers to fulfill their legal obligations established by other regulations. The respect of the rights of employees of micro-enterprises regarding occupational health and safety, equal opportunities and treatment, non-discrimination, dignity at work, etc. will no longer be ensured. The job description that should have been communicated in writing to the employee becomes history and once with its disappearance, the capacity of the Labour Inspectorate to control and of the courts to report to this type of document," it is mentioned in the BNS release. Regarding the Emergency Ordinance adopted by the Government on Wednesday on the use of electronic signatures in labour relations, the trade union organization considers that neither the responsible public institutions nor the citizens have the necessary competencies. The trade union organization announced that it will ask the Ombudsman to notify the Constitutional Court as a matter of urgency regarding the unconstitutionality of the two emergency ordinances, it will ask the Parliament to urgently debate the laws approving these ordinances, not lastly, it will prepare protests if the two ordinances remain in force.AGERPRES(RO - author: George Coman; editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - editor: Maria Voican)

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