"Country profile: Romania", May 2019

... Romania has about 300,000 oficial garment workers, who usually earn a minimum wage of about 230 EUR after tax...

SUMMARY: LABOUR AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

1. PAYMENTS BELOW THE MINIMUM WAGE.

Romanian garment workers usually receive the minimum wage or other amounts just above the minimum wage, which often includes overtime too – in average 10 – 15 hours overtime per week. That means, that often workers are not paid the legal minimum wage for their regular working hours...

2. UNPAID OVERTIME

Every other factory surveyed does not pay overtime to their employees. Usually, wage is paid on piece rate basis; regular working hours and overtime hours are paid according to the same piece rate...

3. WORKERS' WAGES COVERS 14% OF A LIVING WAGE: WORKING IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY GENERATES POVERTY INSTEAD OF ELIMINATING IT...

4. FORCED LABOUR

According to the ILO, workers who need to work overtime to complete the workload assigned to them and earn the minimum wage are forced labourers. In 50% of the researched factories, workers told the interviewers that they had worked overtime to complete their production quota without additional compensation in the previous months...

5. BAD AIR AND INADEQUATE INDOOR TEMPERATURES, LACK OF ACCESS TO WATER

50% of the factories would operate in buildings without proper ventilation and air conditioning... Fainting is quite common among workers. Appropriate amounts of drinking water are not provided in summertime.

6. MALTREATMENT, PRESSURE AND BULLYING

Workers report being bullied, harassed, and constantly threatened with dismissal. They are yelled at and harassed. In order to meet production goals, workers are not allowed to talk to each other or take breaks, and often need to find a replacement worker in order to take toilet breaks...