New legislation regarding the internship
- Law no. 176/ 2018 regarding the internship, published in the Official Gazette, part I, no. 626 of 19 July 2018.
We have summarized below the main provisions of the Law no. 176/17 July 2018 regarding the internship (the “Law”).
The newly introduced legal framework enters into force within thirty days as of its publication, respectively on the 18th of August 2018, except for the provisions of art. 29 (1) (which regulate the obligation of the National Agency for Employment to set up the electronic registry for recording the internship agreements) that enter into force within three days as of its publication, respectively on the 22nd of July 2018.
General provisions
This Law regulates, inter alia: (i) the requirements for organizing internship programs; (ii) the evaluation procedure of the activities performed by the intern; (iii) the internship contract; (iv) certain rights granted specifically to interns; (v) certain benefits for companies; (vi) sanctions.
The requirements for organizing internship programs
The Law regulates the conditions in which a host-organization may organize internship programs, among which:
a. The maximum number of interns may not exceed 5% of the total number of employees, while, if there are at most 20 employees, maximum two internship contracts may be executed simultaneously;
b. The host-organization must appoint a trainer (a person who coordinated and helps the intern during the internship program, who monitors and evaluates his/her activity and who is not allowed to guide more than 3 interns at the same time) and a coordinator of internship programs (the person appointed for the purpose of organizing and implementing internship programs for host-organizations that have more than 12 interns simultaneously);
c. The Law establishes specific rights and obligations for the intern and the host-organization, as well as the obligations and duties of the trainer and the coordinator of internship programs.
The evaluation procedure of the activities performed by the intern
The Law regulates an evaluation procedure of the activities performed by the intern with the following main coordinates:
a. The evaluation is made based on an evaluation report drafted by the trainer within 5 business days as of the end of the internship program which will include, inter alia, the grades received by the intern;
b. The evaluation report is notified to the intern within 7 business days as of the end of the internship program and may be challenged by the intern within 5 business days as of the receipt day;
c. Within 5 days as of final evaluation report is communicated, the host-organization has to issue to the intern an internship certificate which should provide, inter alia, for the period, activities and the grades received by the intern following the finalization of the internship program.
The internship contract
For organizing internship programs, the host-organizations have to execute internship contracts within the conditions regulated by the Law (e.g. with respect to the duration, wage, rights and obligations of parties).
These contracts have to be executed in written form, in Romanian language, on the day previous to the one on which the internship program stars (at the latest). The maximum term of the internship contract is 6 months and may not be extended.
All internship contracts have to be registered with the electronic registry of internship contracts, which is to be set up by the county agency for employment or by the Bucharest agency for employment, on the business day which is previous to the one on which the internship program starts (at the latest). The electronic registry of internship contracts is filled in in the order of executing the internship contracts.
The template of internship contract has to be approved by the Ministry of Employment and Social Justice and will be published on the Ministry website.
Among the causes of termination of the internship contract, the Law provides: (i) termination for failure to comply with or for partial execution of the contractual obligations by any of the parties, to the extent that, upon the notification sent by the compliant party, the non-compliant party does not do its best efforts to execute its contractual obligations properly within 5 days as of receiving the notification; (ii) unilateral termination by any of the parties, in justified circumstances, based on a prior notification sent at least 15 days prior to the proposed termination date.
Specific rights of the interns
Interns are entitled to an internship allowance of at least 50% of the minimum national gross base salary.
The working time for interns is of maximum 40 hours/week and is to be determined under the internship agreement. For interns of less than 18 years old, the working time is of 6 hours/day and a maximum of 30 hours/week.
Benefits for companies
The host-organization which executes an employment agreement with an intern upon the termination of the internship contract or within 60 days from the termination of the internship period will receive, upon request, an allowance of RON 4,586/employee after complying with the obligation to maintain the employment contract for a continuous period of more than 24 months.
In order to benefit from such an allowance specific documentation must be prepared and submitted to the local employment authorities within maximum 6 months as of the expiry of the 60-day term as of the end of the internship program.
Sanctions
The Law regulates certain minor offenses and sanctions such as: (i) failure to comply with the obligation to execute an internship contract before starting the activity is sanctioned with fines from RON 10,000 to RON 20,000; (ii) breaching the obligation to use the intern only for carrying out the activities provided under the internship agreement and the internship job description is sanctioned with fines from RON 2,000 to RON 4,000; (iii) providing under the internship contract clauses that breach the legal provisions is sanctioned with fines from RON 300 to RON 1,000.