Employment

Employment Flash No. 11/2022 – Latest news in the labor law field

09.12.2022 – Latest news in the labor law field

1.  On the legal provisions regarding the child-raising (parental) leave

The Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) no. 164/29.11.2022 for amending and supplementing GEO No. 111/2010 on child-raising (parental) leave and monthly child-raising allowance was published in the Official Gazette no. 1173 dated December 7, 2022.

This GEO transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1.158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on the work-life balance of parents and carers (the “Work-Life Balance Directive”).

The changes and completions introduced by the new GEO focus on the following main aspects:

• extending the non-transferable period of parental leave for the parent who did not initially request this right (“father’s month”, as it was called in practice) from at least 1 month to at least 2 months of the total leave period, if both parents meet the legal conditions;
• express provision for the possibility of granting child-raising leave (and related allowance) or, where appropriate, the insertion incentive, whenever the entitled person so requests, if he or she meets the legal conditions at that moment;
• increasing the level of taxable income that a parent on parental leave may earn in a calendar year to 8 minimum allowances, according to the law (previously the limit was 5 minimum allowances);
• considering the period of the accommodation leave and the corresponding allowance as assimilated period to determine whether the legal conditions for obtaining parental leave and the corresponding allowance are met;
• clarification of certain situations of recalculation of the child-raising allowance, until the child reaches the age of 2 years or 3 years, as the case may be, in the case of a disabled child, in case of rectification / recalculation of income, established by court decision or another specific document;
• introduction of a 10-day period before the end of maternity leave or, as the case may be, before the expected date of entry into parental leave, during which the employee must notify the employer of the intention to exercise this right and of the expected period of leave (by submitting a written or electronic request to this effect);
• the obligation to maintain, until the end of the parental leave, the conditions of employment and the salary rights held at the beginning of the leave or acquired during the leave;
• the employee’s right to benefit, on return from parental leave, from working conditions which are no less favourable and from any improvements to which they might have been entitled in the meantime;
• addressing situations where the parent earns income both in Romania and abroad, with regard to taking these amounts into account when determining the entitlement to parental leave and allowance;
• 50% increase in the child-raising allowance for children born from twin, triplet or multiple pregnancies, starting with the second child, as well as for overlapping pregnancies (i.e. mothers giving birth during child-raising leave) and setting of a minimum amount of these additional amounts;
• suspension or termination of the payment of the child-raising allowance if the certificate of disability expires during the child-raising leave period.

Last but not least, within 60 days from the date when this GEO enters into force, the Methodological Norms in the field of child-raising leave and allowance will be accordingly updated.

This GEO will enter into force as soon as the Government Decision updating the Methodological Norms in this field enters into force, although certain exceptions expressly provided by the new GEO are applicable.

2.  On the new official template for the individual employment agreement

The Ministerial Order no. 2171/25.11.2022 for approving the framework template for the individual employment agreement was published in the Official Gazette no. 1180 dated December 9, 2022.

The present Order establishes the official template for the individual employment contract, updated on the basis of the most recent legislative amendments in the field of labour law, mainly those contained in Law No. 283/2022.

Among the main changes and points of interest regarding the content to be reflected within individual employment contracts, we mention the following aspects covered by the new Order:

• provision of probationary period conditions, if any;
• provision of additional cash benefits and whether the employer provides / bears the transport, as case may be, for situations where work is carried out in the absence of a fixed workplace (e.g. in the field, on client/customer premises, within a group of entities, in a specific geographical area, etc.);
• provision of the allocation of working time by days and between certain hours or, as case may be, specification of how uneven/in shifts/flexible/individualised etc. working program is allocated;
• express specification of the conditions for performing and compensating overtime;
• the procedure for the use of electronic signature, advanced electronic signature and qualified electronic signature (although the law expressly exempts this element from being mentioned in the minimum mandatory content of the individual employment contract);
• other constitutive elements of the salary (highlighted separately, in a form similar to the previous official template) and the method of payment of the salary;
• the right and conditions of vocational training granted by the employer (although the law expressly exempts this element from being mentioned in the minimum compulsory content of the individual employment contract);
• certain additions to the sections on the rights and obligations of the employee and the employer, as case may be, including:
• provision of the employer’s right to bear the cost of private health insurance, additional contributions to the employee’s voluntary pension or occupational pension, as provided for by law and applicable as the case may be;
• provision for the employer’s right to grant any other rights established as a result of the employee’s professional activity;
• the level at which the applicable collective agreement was concluded (e.g., units/group of units/sector of activity).

The Romanian version of this newsletter is available here.