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| The Week in Review 13-19/03/2011 |
| (2011-03-18) |
| Last updated: 2011-03-21 15:33 EET |
The confidence motion, which the opposition hoped would oust the government, was not passed on Wednesday after protracted and tense debates. The motion was introduced by the Social-Liberal opposition in Romania after the government had taken responsibility for the new Labor Code. According to the opponents of the law, its provisions would trigger more instability for employees on the labor market, badly affecting their interests and those of their employers.
Union federations, angry at the law, called a rally near the Parliament building during the debates. The unions claim that the new code turns employees into slaves, irrespective of whether they are employed by the state or by private companies. They also claim that once employment contracts with a set expiration date become the norm, we can no longer speak of professionals, but mere “day laborers”. They are also angry at the fact that the new code eliminates collective labor agreements and negotiations, which makes trade unions almost redundant.
Prime Minister Emil Boc believes, however, that passing the new code is one more battle won in the process of reforming the state. Speaking about the no confidence vote, the Prime Minister believes that it is politically motivated, populist and demagogical: “You are against people having a second job, continuing to hope that the people will keep being cannon fodder in the battle for votes, waiting for hand-outs in exchange for votes, just as you have done every time you were in power and brought Romania to this situation, which everyone knows very well”.
On the day of the no confidence vote, hundreds of trains and tens of thousands of commuters were affected by a warning strike at the Romanian national railway company. They are angry at lay-offs and the fact that collective labor agreements were not concluded, even though negotiations have been going on for more than 60 days with the company’s board.
The opposition challenged the new Labor Code at the Constitutional Court, after their confidence motion had failed to pass. The court will be debating the constitutionality of the new code on March 23rd. The Social Liberal opposition group called into question the way in which the government passed that law, namely by making it a vote of confidence, rather than by debate in parliament, as well as some provisions that violate the civil rights stipulated in the constitution, such as the right to employment, the right to time off from work, freedom of association and freedom to go on strike. After the rally on the day of the no confidence vote, unions threatened with an all out strike. Trade unions said they had filed protests with the European Commission and the World Labor Organization, claiming that Romania was in violation of labor directives.
The terrible situation in Japan after the devastating earthquake last week, made worse by the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, have raised concern in the international community. More and more countries, including Romania, are considering bringing home their citizens. The authorities in Bucharest met in a special session to discuss the latest developments and the measures that need to be taken. The government assured everyone that it had the means to repatriate Romanian citizens residing in Japan. This would require the government supplying 200,000 Euro from its budget, for Romanians who cannot afford regular airline tickets to return home. So far, over 200 Romanians have requested help from consular offices.
At the end of an emergency government meeting, spokeswoman Ioana Muntean said: “Upon the Foreign Minister’s proposal, Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc decided that a task force be set up as part of the National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities , CNCAN, to provide information on the latest developments in Romania’s nuclear activities. CNCAN is Romania’s official contact organization with the National Atomic Energy Agency, which means that it will receive notifications in the event of nuclear accidents, enabling it to give prior warning to institutions and structures able to handle such situations.”
Japan’s nuclear crisis has revived memories of the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986, which left 15,000 dead, as well the controversial issue of further developing the nuclear energy sector. An increasing number of states have announced they are revising the safety norms at their nuclear power plants.
In the following weeks, EU countries are to conduct resistance tests in order to ascertain risks in the case of earthquakes and tsunamis. Romania boasts only one nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, in the south-east, which was built to withstand earthquakes of up to 8 degrees on the Richter scale.
The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Moldova, (an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country) Iurie Leanca, came to Bucharest on Wednesday. This is the first visit paid by a high-ranking Moldovan official after the parliamentary election in November 2010. Iurie Leanca was received by president Traian Basescu, who reiterated Romania’s staunch support for the Republic of Moldova’s European aspirations. Also on Wednesday, the Moldovan Foreign Minister and his Romanian counterpart Teodor Baconschi held talks on the joint session of the two countries’ governments, due to take place in June.
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