Amendments brought to the Labor Code

• Amendments brought to the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 on parental leave and child care monthly allowance

We have summarized below the main amendments and completions brought by:

(i) the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 53/4 August 2017 (hereinafter “GEO 53/2017”) with respect to the Law no. 53/2003 – the Labor code (“Labor Code”) and (ii) Government Emergency Ordinance no. 55/4 August 2017 with respect to the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 on parental leave and child care monthly allowance.

1. Amendments brought to the Labor Code

GEO 53/2017 enters into force on its publication in the Official Gazette, respectively on 7 August 2017.

General provisions

GEO 53/2017 amends, inter alia, the legal provisions which regulate with respect to: (i) the undeclared labor, (ii) the conclusion and amendment of the individual labor agreement, (iii) recording the hours during which the labor is performed, (iv) the sanctions.

The undeclared labor

GEO 53/2017 regulates for the first time the concept of undeclared labor which is defined as:

a) welcoming at work a person who has not concluded a written individual labor agreement on the day previous to the one he/she starts the activity

b) welcoming at work a person without performing the relevant registrations with the general registry of employees on the day previous to the one she/he starts the activity

c) welcoming at work an employee during the period of time when her/his individual employment agreement is suspended

d) welcoming at work an employee outside the working schedule which is provided by her/his part-time individual employment agreement

The undeclared work is sanctioned as minor offence with fines of:

• RON 20,000 for each person identified in the situations described at point b) and c) above
• RON 10,000 for each person identified in the situation descried at point d) above

The conclusion and amendment of the individual labor agreement

GEO 53/2017 expressly provides for the following obligations of the employer: (i) the obligation to conclude the individual labor agreement previously to the date when the employee starts his/her activity, (ii) the obligation to keep at the working place a copy of the individual labor agreement concluded by the employee who works at the respective working place otherwise the employer can be sanctioned with a fine of RON 10,000.

If prior to the enactment of GEO 53/2017 the amendment of the elements regulated by the individual labor agreement could have been made by concluding an addendum within 20 business days after the amendment, as per the current legal framework the addendum must be concluded before the amendment enters into force.

Recording the hours during which the labor is performed

GEO 53/2017 regulates new obligation for the employers in what concerns recording the hours during which the labor is performed, as follows:

• this record has to be kept at the working place
• it concerns the working hours performed on a daily basis by the employee
• it has to evidence the starting and ending hours of the work schedule

Sanctions

The legal provision which sanctions welcoming at work the employee without concluding an individual labor agreement is amended as follows:

• the 5-person limit which was previously provided in order to assess the deed as minor offence is eliminated
• the minimum amount of the fine provided for this minor offence was eliminated so that currently the fine is of RON 20,000 for each identified person

In what concerns the undeclared work, GEO 53/2017 provides, inter alia, that:

• the entity breaching the law may pay within maximum 48 hours as of the date of the minutes or, as the case may be, the date when the minutes were communicated, half the fine provided by law
• if such a breach is acknowledged, the labor inspector applies, as a secondary sanction, the suspension of the activity performed at the working place where the labor inspection took place, as per the procedure issued by the Labor Inspection
• the employer may restart its activity only after the fine is paid and after evidencing that the breaches that triggered the sanctions were remedied

Amending the in force regulations regarding the registry of employees

As a consequence for amending the Labor Code by GEO 53/2017, art. 9(1) of the Government Decision no. 500/2011 on the general registry of employees, which regulates the sanctions for the activity performed without properly performing the registrations under the public and private registry of employees, is also abrogated.

2. Amendment of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 on parental leave and child care monthly allowance

As per the new legal provisions, the monthly allowance related to the parental leave for raising the children of up to 2 years old, or 3 years old, for children with disabilities, may not be higher than RON 8.500.

This limitation applies starting with the rights related to September 2017.