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.
Labour Code,52 (3), 53 (1) and (2), 122 (3) Law No 283/ 2022, 111 (2)
In cases of temporary business slowdown for economic, technological, structural or other similar reasons, there are three possibilities available to the employer in terms of working time flexibility:
COVID-19 response Since March 2020, workers' indemnity of at least 75% of their base salary during suspension of employment or reduction of activity due to the crisis, is covered by the unemployment insurance budget up to a maximum of RON 5,429 (€ 1,100) per month. Employers can, but do not have to, cover the difference if the indemnity is capped, to provide the worker with the 75% of their base salary. In order to receive the indemnity, employers have to submit a payment request to the local unemployment agency. The indemnity is subject to tax and social security contributions. The tax and social security contributions are covered by the employer.
Starting with 1 July 2021, the technical unemployment benefits are no longer paid from the state budget, and employers wishing to apply the measure of technical unemployment have to bear its own budgets. The facility has been extended successively since the beginning of the pandemic, and the last deadline for the possibility of receiving this state support due to the pandemic is 30 June 2021, in accordance with the Government's Emergency Order no. 211/2020. The governmental wage indemnity for suspended or reduced activity is eligible for companies suffering from at least 25% reduced turnover due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Furthermore, a law for 'paid leave when schools are closed under exceptional circumstances' has been approved by the government (Law no. 19/2020). The law aims at allowing at least one parent at home with children while the schools are closed.
The law states that: * Paid leave is granted only if the tasks associated with the employees’ roles cannot be performed in 'working from home or teleworking conditions. * Paid leave can be granted to only one of the parents, and only if the child in care is of maximum 12 years of age (or 18 years of age for children with a disability), who are formally registered as attending courses in a school. * In some sectors, the parent's request for leave is conditioned by the employer's acceptance (national energy system units, operating units in the nuclear sectors, continuous fire units, health and social care units, telecommunications, public radio and television, rail transport, units that ensure the public transport and sanitation of the localities, as well as the supply of the population with gas, electricity, heat, and water). * During such leave, employees will be entitled to a payment of up to 75% of the employee’s base salary, but not more than 75% of the average gross salary in the economy. The allowance is subject to personal income tax and social security contributions (that is personal income tax, social security contribution, health insurance contribution and work insurance contribution). The net value of the allowance paid by the employer (the amount actually received by the parent) can be recovered from the Guarantee Fund for the payment of salary claims; the corresponding personal income tax and the social security contributions are borne by the employer. To recover the net allowance, employers should submit a request to the local, or to the Bucharest's, unemployment agency. This applies to all employees with children in their care.
Besides these legal developments, some decisions of the Supreme Court in Romania seem to emphasise the flexibility of contractual arrangements regarding working time. Thus, for example, the days established by law as official public holidays are not working days; using employees during these days is a breach of the law. However, the High Court of Cassation and Justice established by Decision 22/2015 of 19 October 2015 that the act of the employer to use workers on public holidays does not meet the elements of an offence if the employer has fulfilled the obligation to provide compensation with time off.
Law no 283/2022 clarifies working time, specifying that the work schedule is the employer's way of organising work, which determines the hours and days when work begins and ends.
Eurofound (2015), Romania: Working time flexibility, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/working-time-flexibility/romania
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