European Federation of Journalists

Romania: FAIR-MediaSind signed a collective agreement with Agerpres


The Romanian affiliate of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the Federation Culture and Media FAIR-MediaSind, negotiated and signed a collective agreement on 2 March 2017 with the national news agency Agerpres for the period 2017-2019.

The collective agreement contains new clauses as well as new dispositions regarding holidays, pension and the Ethics and Discipline Committee.

  • The article 22 introduces three days off on June 1 (for all employees), March 8 (for women) and November 19 (for men).
  • The article 80 introduces the payment of seven months’ severance in case of redundancies and three in case of retirement.
  • The article 82 says that the employee representative in the Ethics and Discipline Committee is to be elected by secret ballot among employees in the same department of the person under investigation. It also introduces the possibility of replacement for three union representatives in the Ethics and Discipline Committee.

The Collective Agreement also contains the conscience clause – journalists can refuse to write an article if they think it violates professional ethics – as well as clauses for the protection of journalistic sources, right to opinion and the Code of Ethics of the Journalists in Agerpres.