European Commission Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness Roxana Minzatu said she supports strengthening collective bargaining in Romania, including at sector level, to ensure workers receive genuine protection.

Minzatu met in Brussels on Wednesday with representatives of trade unions affiliated with the Cartel ALFA National Trade Union Confederation and UNI Europa, who staged a protest outside the European Commission's headquarters, calling for the unblocking of sector-level collective bargaining and an increase in the minimum wage.

'I met with representatives of the Cartel ALFA National Trade Union Confederation and UNI Europa, who are protesting today outside the European Commission building in Brussels. We discussed directly the deadlock in collective bargaining in Romania and its consequences for employees. Wages, working conditions and job security are essential. Employees have the right to a strong voice and to effective social dialogue that delivers results, rather than being a mere formality,' Minzatu wrote on Facebook.

According to the European Commission Vice-President, genuine social dialogue requires good faith, responsibility and a willingness to make decisions together. However, she said that when 'collective bargaining is merely formal and the conclusion of agreements is blocked, it is employees and their families who suffer.'

'I strongly support strengthening collective bargaining in Romania, including at sector level, so that worker protection is real. Truly strong societies, capable of overcoming technological, security and economic challenges, are those built on social dialogue that delivers results for both companies and employees, where social partners have a strong voice and where collective bargaining functions effectively,' Minzatu concluded.

The Trade Union Federation of Commerce, the Trade Union Federation of IT & Communications and the Trade Union Federation of the Financial Industry, all affiliated with Cartel ALFA and supported by UNI Europa, organized the protest in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels.

The unions said they aimed to draw attention to the state of collective bargaining in Romania and the need to increase the minimum wage from January 1, 2027.

According to Cartel ALFA, the action highlights an issue that directly affects hundreds of thousands of Romanian workers: the difficulty of turning the right to collective bargaining into an effective mechanism for improving wages and working conditions. The unions argue that collective bargaining rights must produce concrete results and that the statutory minimum gross wage should be increased from January 1, 2027, based on criteria set out in national legislation and the European framework.

Union representatives said that, in the private sector, negotiations for sectoral and national collective agreements are frequently hindered by employers' refusal to participate, a lack of negotiation mandates, or the rejection of demands put forward by trade unions.

They added that some companies' withdrawal from employers' organizations, or their refusal to grant mandates for the negotiation and implementation of sector-level collective agreements, undermines the ability of the collective bargaining system to deliver results for as many workers as possible.

'Romania needs mechanisms that encourage and enable genuine collective bargaining, not a system in which negotiations can be delayed or blocked without consequences. Through the action in Brussels, the trade union organizations are calling for this issue to be treated as a matter of respecting and strengthening social dialogue, not merely as a dispute between unions and certain companies,' the confederation said.

The European Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages includes, among the reference values used to assess the adequacy of minimum wages, 60% of the gross median wage and 50% of the gross average wage. In this context, the unions are calling for an increase in Romania's guaranteed gross minimum wage from January 1, 2027. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Cristian Anghelache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)

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