Romania: The Supreme Court stated that negotiation on the qualification of working condition cannot be subject to mediation

The Romanian retirement system recognizes that working conditions in some areas are harder and they have a greater impact on the employees that perform their activities under these conditions, so over the time there were different classifications of working conditions that allow the employees working in such conditions to obtain the reduction of their standard retirement age. Since the older legal provisions on this matter are subject to interpretation, a lot of employees needed to get their working conditions recognized as falling under one of these special categories. In some cases employers and employees would still at this moment negotiate the inclusion of certain positions in one of these categories. The Supreme Court has stated in a recent decision that these negotiations between employers and employees cannot be subject of mediation in front of a mediator. According to Romanian law the mediator has specific attributions that cannot be extended in a way that would allow the parties to classify working conditions through a mediation agreement.