Where Are the 200,000 Work Contracts Sealed In Two Weeks That Boc Is Talking About?

05.18.2011 ZF English

The new Labor Code led to the sealing of nearly 200,000 new employment contracts in two weeks' time, says the Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc. However, it is not known which companies hired or how many contracts were ended during this period.

"We are nearing 200,000 new employment contracts (...) This is another sign that the economy is out of recession and going in the right direction," is the message that Premier Emil Boc keeps trying to hammer home since he became an interim Labor Minister.

Labor Inspection authority announced earlier this week that between May 2 and May 15--in less than two weeks' time since the new Labor Code became effective--177,746 new employment contracts were registered nationwide.

Ziarul Financiar asked representatives of the Labor Inspection authority, the Labor Ministry and the Government for ten examples of companies that have sealed new employment contracts in the period mentioned by Premier Boc.

"It is not possible to seal 200,000 new employment contracts in less than a month's time. Some are contracts that are being renewed because the companies operated salary cuts and had to come up with new contracts (...). Of course, it is possible for the number of contracts to have increased in the construction sector because the season has started, but not by 200,000 because companies did not wait for the Labor Code to start hiring," said Mariana Campeanu, economist and statistician, who was Labor Minister in the Tariceanu Cabinet.