Migrant Workers in Romania

1. Migrant Workers in Romania

2. Migrant Workers – legal aspects • Foreign citizens from the EU/EEA are able to work in Romania in compliance with domestic laws on free access to the labor market. • The legal framework for citizens from non-EU/EEA countries is given by • Government Emergency Ordinance no. 194/2002 on the status of foreigners in Romania; • Government Emergency Ordinance no. 56/2007 concerning the employment in and posting of foreigners to Romania; • Law no.334 / 2006 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of trans-national services (transposes the European Parliament / Council Directive 96/71 of 1996 on the posting of workers) • Romanian Labour Code (theoretically); • For legally working in Romania, a foreigner needs: • A long period residence visa for employment – 90 days or a long period residence visa for other purposes; • A work permit.

3. Statistics • In the first half of 2009 the total number of immigrants withright to stay legal in Romania was 59,184 people. • In the last 5 years, the total number of legal immigrants inRomania increased by about 40% (17,383 persons). • Most of the immigrants come from: The Republic of Moldova(28%), Turkey (17%) and China (14%).

4. The crude reality • Romanian companies sometimes employ foreign workers with the help of human resources companies, which actually bring foreign workers to Romania under civil contracts concluded with similar companies abroad. The territorial labour inspection offices cannot verify these companies, as there are no legal provisions allowing them to. • Official documents do not always mention the job / profession of the posted foreign worker, though the law stipulates that copies of the official documents attesting the holder’s education, professional training and experience are mandatory. Difficulties in recognition of qualification of the worker, often leading to employment on low qualification jobs. In fact most migrant workers are employed to do lower qualification jobs or to work in hard working conditions. • Some Romanian employers have not paid salaries on the dates established under the individual employment contracts; therefore some foreign workers stopped working and left the company and the accommodation facilities.

5. The crude reality • The time spent to get from the accommodation facility to the work place is not considered paid working time. • Foreign workers are unhappy with getting their salaries in the Romanian currency, not in hard currency, as the foreign intermediary promised. • Abuses committed by recruiters (Romanian or foreign, who cash in between 6,000 and 12,000 Euros per one job in Romania); • Inobservance of the initial verbal agreement concluded with the recruiter (the promised salary proves to be gross, not net, unwarranted employment contract and / or more than 6 working days per week); • Inobservance / modification of contractual clauses (salary paid in lunch tickets, partial payment of the promised salary, in Romania or the country of origin, smaller salary to cover accommodation and meals);

6. The crude reality • Abusive practices ( keeping original work permits at the company headquarters – running counter to the legal provisions, unpaid salaries, arbitrarily established work norms, abusive contractual clauses, employment contracts unsigned by the employer, unpaid medical leaves, passport seized...) • Difficulties to settle in the new location (dependency on intermediaries that „translate” Romanian reality, difficulties in establishing work relations, fear of failure to get a renewal of the visa, lack of access to information...) • Language difficulties and cultural differences, generating barriers in communication. Combined with the differences in social legislation and with a low level of information about the social rights in the respective country, this can lead to serious difficulties in achieving a full level of the social security rights; • Low-standard working conditions, regarding safety at work, hygiene at work, physical effort, stress; • Migrant workers are in most cases employed with lower wages compared with the wages of indigenous workers, being constantly discriminated. Lower wages will result in lower social rights for the worker;

7. The crude reality • Difficult or no access to medical services. • Difficulties in achieving of proper housing, leading to discomfort and frustration; • Separation from the family; • Illegal employment (black labour); this is the worst scenario for a person working abroad; As no social contributions are paid to the social security system, there are practically no social benefits for this kind of employment; • Infringement of fundamental human rights (slavery): workers are not allowed to leave the factory premises (if the accommodation facility is within), separation from the domestic workers, people being given numbers instead of names, huge work norms impossible to achieve, resulting in wage cuts or unpaid overtime, psychological abuse.

8. Trade Union Initiatives • In 2009 NTUC “Cartel ALFA” implemented a project in partnership with other trade unions and NGOs with the purpose to help the immigrant workers. • The target group of the project was formed by more than 49,000 migrant workers, majority of them coming from Turkey and China and the result was the elaboration of a Guide printed into the migrant’s mother language, about the following issues: • the knowledge by the migrant workers of their rights and their possibilities to be integrated into the Romanian society; • the access to information by migrant workers on matters related to their labour rights and regarding the development of their capacities to fully participate to the social and economic life;

9. Trade Union Initiatives • Last year, a document was elaborated by NTUC “Cartel Alfa”, in cooperation with 3 NGOs and sent to the Romanian Government, claiming major legislative deficiencies that jeopardise the rights and interests of the migrant workers in Romania. Several problems were raised in this document: • Lack of clear provisions regarding the legal employment status of the migrant workers as well as of procedures for addressing discriminatory treatments and infringement of fundamental rights. • There is no possibility to register the unemployed migrant workers as such even though unemployment contributions are paid for them to the Romanian unemployment fund. • Insufficient regulation of admission and residence requirements for workers, especially for the posted ones; • Insufficient regulation of admission and residence requirements for workers, especially for the posted ones; • Deregulation of private recruitment agencies; • The need to ratify the ILO Conventions no. 181 and 97. • Lack of a coherent system of sanctions against abusive employers

10. "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.“ Mahatma Ghandi