Business leaders demands to curb unemployment

Looser fiscal measures for the workforce, Labor Law changes to iron out employee-employer relations, stimulating career change by granting fiscal facilities to companies that are training employees, and state subsidies for companies that hire unemployed workers are the main demands of business leaders to stop increasingly higher unemployment.

Businesspeople criticize the government for not applying measures announced for the labor market in its plan to counter the crisis, as the number of unemployed rose by more than 100,000 people in the first four months of 2009, up to 550,000.

According to one of the top headhunters on the local market, George Butunoiu, the government should simplify labor legislation and reduce labor taxes in the midst of the economic crisis. "The government's most important tool to help businesspeople at this time is labor legislation, which needs to be ironed out. Both employment and layoff proceedings should be simplified.

If legislation is restrictive, companies are reluctant to employ, as they will later have difficulties with layoffs," Butunoiu told Business Standard. As far as professional or career shift training is concerned, Butunoiu said that these operations are not up to the state, but that the government should help companies that are training employees.

"Career reorientation involving the state is just money thrown in the wind. The government should let companies do the training, because they know best how many employees and what skills they need," Butunoiu added. Lower labor taxes are also the top solution according to Light Industry Employers Union (FEPAIUS) President, Maria Grapini. "This is the first measure that all European states have taken during the crisis. Only Romania has raised social contributions, so we demand that these be reduced back to last year's level, at the very least," she said.

Business Standard