FSANP asks investigation be opened against JusMin for limiting right to trade union representation

The Federation of Trade Unions of the National Administration of Penitentiaries (FSANP) on Thursday announced that it filed a criminal complaint against Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, for committing abuse of office and breaking the right to trade union representation, which are crimes punished by up to 7 years detention. 

According to a release of the FSANP sent to AGERPRES, the complaint was filed on Wednesday with the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, after Tudorel Toader refused to allow the representatives of the trade unions to participate in negotiations. 

"On May 24 2018, Tudorel Toader abusively refused to allow the representatives of the FSANP to participate in the meeting held at the Ministry of Justice headquarters debating on normative acts of interest, while limiting thus the exercise of the representation capacities and their mandate in defending and promoting the professional rights and interests of the trade union members. Although, over May 2017-May 2018, there were held several rounds of negotiations and several official meetings took place between Tudorel Toader and the representatives of the FSANP, the Minister once again intentionally tried to misinform the public opinion and the mass media by invoking a so-called lack of capacity of the trade union that insistently asked for his dismissal for incompetence and undermining the penitentiary system," reads the release. 

According to the same source, Tudorel Toader knew the fact that the trade union is represented at the penitentiary system level, considering that, in his capacity as a Minister of Justice, he signed an agreement with the FSANP ten days before his refusal to receive the trade union representatives to talks. 

Therefore, until the relevant courts rule on the criminal complaint for abuse of office and breaking the right to trade union representation, we are reiterating our request for Tudorel Toader to be removed from office for incompetency and for repeatedly attempting to misinform the public opinion," reads the release. 

FSANP specified that the Law 62/2011 on social dialogue sanction the crime of limiting attributes of the elected members of the trade unions by 3 months up to 2 years prison, while the Criminal Code sanctions abuse of office with 2 up to 7 years prison.