Industrial relations (IR) have been rather extensively investigated in many eastern European countries in the last 15 years, but there is still very limited information about Romania. This article presents an overview of the main IR institutions, concerning both the legal framework as well as their operation in practice, in Romania. It examines the role of the state, employers associations, trade unions and collective bargaining from a historical perspective. In the final part, the changes that have occurred after 1989 in these selected parameters are discussed in the broader eastern European context. The study is based on primary data collected in 2000 and 2001 which aimed to identify what has changed since 1989 regarding the IR actors (i.e. state, employers associations and trade unions) and the relations between them. Seven officials from national institutions were interviewed: a government representative involved in the establishing of the Labour Code; two officials from employers associations; two trade union officials; the secretary of the Economic and Social Council; and the representative in Romania of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). An ILO official responsible for the activities of employers associations throughout central and eastern European countries was also interviewed. In addition, 25 (one-to-one) interviews were conducted in a total of fifteen companies which were studied during the research. Thirteen interviewees were managers or employers (three employers, three top managers, three human resource managers and four line managers), while twelve were employees (four shop stewards, seven employees and an unemployed person). Hence, data triangulation is used to ensure the reliability of the empirical evidence