The Day Laborer Law Won't Reduce Informal Employment

05.17.2011 ZF English

Informal employment for seasonal activities will not dwindle after the law on day laborers came into effect early this month with the new Labor Code, which has gone almost unnoticed.

The Labor Inspectorate and Premier Emil Boc have recently come up with figures referring to the record high fines levied in less than two weeks for informal employment, which topped EUR1.6 million in the May 2-15 period.

The discontent of farmers, who are mainly targeted by the above-mentioned normative document, mainly has to do with the obligation to pay day laborers on a daily basis.

"We paid them between the minimum and average salary, namely 50 lei per day. The law was drafted with the pen on a piece of paper in the office, they know nothing about work in the farming sector and they are only interested in levying the 16% tax," said Stefan Poienaru, one of the biggest Romanian farmers, who operates 12,000 hectares of farming land through Agrofam Holding Fetesti, which is currently working with 180 to 200 day laborers.

Culita Tarata, who farms 60,000 hectares of land via TCE 3 Brazi, which is the biggest farm operated by a company in Romania, says the day laborer law is welcome, because it helps protect them, but is not without problems.

"(...) Those who believe the day laborer law will cut informal employment are bitterly wrong. They're still using informal employment in the logging business," Tarata said.