Post-socialist economic and political developments have produced a special type of neoliberal society in Romania, characterised by weak state institutions, high centralisation and collective bargaining coverage and relatively high trade union mobilisation power (Bohle and Greskovits 2012). Before the 2008 recession, relatively strong unions had the upper hand in infl uencing Romanian governments to support a protectionist labour legislation. Unlike most countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Romania kept its pre-1989 Labour Code for quite some time (until 2003), with some minor revisions that removed the unions’ political obligations, such as socialist education. Post-1989 legislation entitled the social partners to bargain collectively and gave unions the right to strike (Hayter et al. 2013). Collective agreements could be concluded at national, industry (or other sub-divisions) and company levels. Comparable only to Slovenia, the erga omnes principle ensured an automatic extension of collective agreements to cover all employees in the bargaining unit at cross-industry, industrial and company levels. The presence of the favourability principle enshrined into law also meant, however, that lower-level collective agreements could only improve the provisions for employees set at higher levels (Trif 2016). Thus statutory regulations ensured that all employees were covered, at least by the provisions of cross-industry agreements (Table 24.1).