ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Oana Palita and Camelia Meirosu, Eversheds Sutherland Romania
9.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution Arbitration is possible in the case of disputes relat - ing to collective labour conflicts. However, in order to reach arbitration, conciliation organised by the minis - try responsible for social dialogue or by the territorial labour inspectorate is first necessary. If the collective labour disputes have not been resolved through con - ciliation, the parties may decide by mutual agreement to start the arbitration or mediation procedure. Pre-dispute arbitration agreements between the employee and the employer are not valid. Neverthe - less, such an agreement could be valid in a collective labour dispute. The pre-dispute arbitration agreement should be in written form, under penalty of its nullity. This kind of agreement can be concluded by a clause stipulated in the initial contract or by a subsequent contract. 9.3 Costs In Romanian law, the rule is that the losing party will be ordered to pay the court costs, at the request of the winning party. The court costs include: • the fees of lawyers, experts and specialists; • the amounts due to witnesses for travel and the losses caused by the need to be present at the trial; and • transport expenses and any other expenses neces - sary for the proper conduct of the trial. When the claims are admitted only in part, the judge shall determine the extent to which each of the parties may be ordered to pay the costs. However, when the court assesses or is so requested, it may reduce the expenses for the fees of lawyers, judicial experts or specialists, when they are mani - festly disproportionate in relation to the value or com - plexity of the case or to the activity carried out by the lawyer.
Other proceedings related to employment situa - tions can carried out via video (namely disciplinary hearings, adequacy review evaluation meetings, and harassment claim interviews), subject to the internal regulations of each employer.
9. Dispute Resolution 9.1 Litigation
Employment disputes fall under the competence of a tribunal or Court of Appeal, depending on the phase of the litigation. These types of disputes are heard by specialised judges functioning in specialised sections of the respective court. Class Actions Collective or joint actions are possible in Romanian labour law, mainly in the case of disputes that are initiated by trade unions. The remedies obtained will apply only to the members of the trade union who have been granted a valid mandate for representation in connection with the respective claim, and not to an entire “class”. In other words, this type of action does not constitute a class action in the typical sense. A key condition for this representation is that trade unions must have legal standing and may only initi - ate legal actions on behalf of their members based on a valid mandate. Importantly, individual members retain the right to oppose or withdraw from the legal action at any time before the conclusion of the judicial proceedings. Representation in Court In employment-related trials, the parties may be rep - resented legally, conventionally or judicially. They have the right to appoint a representative; however, there may be situations where the law requires the personal presence of the party in court. In all cases, it is neces - sary to provide proof of the representative’s authority for the action to be considered valid.
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