European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
8, 10, 13 and 14 (Law no. 200/2006); 220^1, 220^2, 220^3, 220^4, 220^5 and 220^6 (Emergency Ordinance no. 79/2017); 14^1, 14^12, 14^3, 14^4 and 14^15 (Emergency Ordinance no. 6/2026)
The Guarantee Fund for unpaid salaries is designed to ensure payment of outstanding claims arising from individual employment contracts and collective agreements concluded by employers who were given a final judicial decision to open insolvency procedures, and for which total or partial removal of the right of management was prepared (employers in the state of insolvency).
Employers are required to pay a monthly contribution to the Guarantee Fund at a rate of 0.25% of total monthly wages. They are also obliged to notify the fiscal administration by the 25th day of every month about the amount of contribution to the Guarantee Fund. The fund is administered by the National Agency for Employment (Agenția Națională pentru Ocuparea Forței de Muncă, ANOFM), through its local agencies.
From the Guarantee Fund's resources, outstanding wages or compensatory payments and indemnities for temporary interruption of activity may be paid. The fund cannot pay the outstanding social contributions of companies in insolvency.
From the Guarantee Fund, employees may claim the outstanding wages for a period of up to three calendar months in case their employer is in insolvency. Employees or organisations representing them may apply for payment from the territorial employment agency themselves, or the payment application may be filed by the legal administrator of the insolvent employer. Claims for the payment of overdue salaries are assessed by the local employment agencies, which also make the actual payments. Outstanding salaries are paid out of the Guarantee Fund regardless of whether the insolvent employer had paid the contribution to the Guarantee Fund in time. The total amount of the outstanding claims incurred by the Guarantee Fund may not exceed the amount of three monthly salaries at the national level per employee.
In March 2026, the government updated the implementation rules for the Wage Guarantee Fund to align with recent legal changes and better protect workers when employers face financial trouble. This update explicitly clarifies the specific time periods during which employees can receive wage coverage, depending on whether their company is insolvent (if the debtor fails to pay its debt within 60 days of the due date) or undergoing a preventive restructuring process (which is 24 months, with the option to extend for a further 12 months). It also details the exact calculation method used for these covered periods, specifying what happens when an employer manages to pay wages in full. Furthermore, the regulation clearly outlines which employee social security contributions are paid for by the fund during these financial distress procedures. Specifically, the coverage includes both the required pension social insurance and health insurance contributions.
In 2026, the government has increased the maximum amount of unpaid wage claims that employees can recover from the Wage Guarantee Fund, specifically for companies officially designated as 'strategic'. Under normal rules, payout caps apply, but employees at these key businesses can now receive up to 12 average gross monthly wages. If the strategic company is undergoing preventive debt restructuring, this payout cap is set to six average gross wages per worker.
To earn a ‘strategic’ designation, a company must satisfy at least one specific requirement: managing critical national or European infrastructure, maintaining essential supply chains, participating in defence, industrial security, or economic resilience programmes, or posing a significant economic risk to local employment if it shuts down. Government ministries are responsible for defining clear selection standards for their sectors based on these rules, and the final list of approved strategic companies must receive official government and ministry of labour authorization.
Romanian legislation is in line with the EU Directive 2008/94/EC on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer. It has also taken into account the ILO Convention no. C 173 on the protection of workers' claims from 1992, even though this has not yet been ratified by Romania.
Romanian law does not distinguish between different categories of workers; it applies to all employees, either on fixed-term or open-ended contracts, and regardless of their position in the company. However, employees working for public institutions will not benefit from the provisions of the law because these employers cannot be subject to insolvency proceedings.
The annual laws of the state social security budget stipulate the amounts estimated to be collected from employers, respectively paid from the Guarantee Fund for debt salaries. To access the annual laws, visit the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity.. There is a constant surplus set for each year.
The insurance contribution for work Government emergency ordinance no. 79/2017 amending and supplementing law no. 227/2005 on the Fiscal Code transfers social and health contributions from the employer to the employee came into effect 1 January 2018. With it, four existing mandatory social contributions, namely the contribution for holidays and health insurance allowances, unemployment insurance contributions, insurance contributions for accidents at work and occupational diseases, and the contribution to the Guarantee Fund for the payment of salary claims, were merged into a single contribution, the insurance contribution for work.
Eurofound (2015), Romania: Wage guarantee in case of insolvency, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/wage-guarantee-in-case-of-insolvency/romania
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