Did the Romanian government change the law during the teachers' strike to suspend their work contracts? No, that's not true: by law, during strike action, people's work contracts are suspended, if they chose to go on strike, apart from health allowance. The government changed the law during the teachers' strike to affect teachers' seniority, not their work contracts.
The claim originated from a video published by TikTok user @stiridinromania (archived here) on June 11, 2023. Diana Șoșoacă, an independent MP and vocal conspiracy theorist, said during an interview on Anca Alexandrescu's show, "Culisele Statului Paralel", from Realitatea TV, that:
The Government changed the law during the teachers' strike, so that their work contract could be suspended.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jun 23 09:09:49 2023 UTC)
According to Article 195 related to strike action, workers who go on strike will have their work contract suspended throughout the period they go on strike, and they will be without pay, apart from health allowances. The teachers' strike action, which started on May 22nd, saw many disruptions towards the end of the academic year when the most important exams for admission into high school and university are taking place.
The Romanian Government changed the law on social dialogue through an emergency ordinance on May 24th, 2023, which impacted the tenure and seniority of teachers who participated in the strike starting from the third day.
In the previous form of the law, it was stipulated that during the strike the employment contract "is suspended by law." For legal suspensions, seniority in a field is not affected, while for suspensions at the request of the employee, seniority is interrupted. In addition to affecting the seniority of employees who go on strike after the ordinance was introduced, participation in the formal teachers' exam for young teachers could also be affected by this ordinance. By participating in the strike, young teachers may no longer have the necessary seniority to be able to participate in the final exam within the pedagogical cycle, which grants them the status of "full" teachers within primary and middle education.
