Articles

End of the state of alert in Romania – impact on employment relations

Authors: Roxana Abrasu and Daniel Stancescu

After two years during which employers and employees fought a fierce battle to adapt the working environment to the unprecedented pandemic context, in which the organization of working time was predominantly remote (in sectors that allowed this approach) and where we all witnessed the reconfiguration of the employment relationships from all points of view, the spring of 2022 came with the end of the state of alert in Romania. As a result, the legal framework that allowed and facilitated imposing certain restrictions and benefits, including in the sphere of the employee-employer relationship, is not in force anymore.

The natural question that arises in such a situation is: “and now, what?“. This also in a context where pandemic restrictions can no longer be imposed (e.g., epidemiological triage) and employers still need to ensure health and safety in the organizational environment. At the same time, a number of obligations that were “suspended” during the state of alert (e.g., negotiation of the expired collective bargaining agreements) are (re)born. Furthermore, employees have made clear their expectations for maintaining flexibility and benefits at the workplace, so a return to the state of affairs of two years ago seems virtually impossible.

Thus, the main areas where the status has changed as a result of the end of the state of alert and which need to be carefully assessed by all parties involved are:

Collective bargaining agreements

According to Law no. 55/2020, the validity of collective bargaining agreements was maintained during the state of alert and is extended for a period of 90 days after the end of the state of alert. In other words, collective bargaining agreements whose applicability would have expired during the period of the state of alert remain in force for 90 days as of March 9^th,  2022 (the first day on which the state of alert was no longer in force in Romania).

Although the validity of collective bargaining agreements is automatically extended for 90 days, it is important to note that the parties are obliged to start collective negotiations within 45 days as of the end of the state of alert.

Epidemiological triage and wearing a mask at the workplace

The end of the state of alert has also brought as novelty the fact that employers are no longer obliged to carry out epidemiological screening/triage at the entrance to the workplace and, correlatively, employees are no longer required to wear a protective mask.

However, given that the rate of infection with COVID-19 is still high in Romania and continues to generate risks for employers in the area of health and safety at work, there are still companies that wish to maintain, at least for a period, the obligation for employees to wear protective masks. In this respect, we believe that it could be possible to implement such a measure through close cooperation between the “key players” in such a context, namely the occupational health and safety officers and the occupational physician. Such a measure may be maintained as long as it is established as essential from the perspective of the employer’s obligation to ensure a healthy working environment by prioritising the occupational safety of employees. The appropriateness of such a decision must be discussed and decided at the level of each company, depending on the principles, the particular situation and the impact of such a decision on the whole organisation, based on solid documentation from a legal perspective.

Telework

We note that employers are no longer obliged to implement teleworking for at least 50% of employees, where the specific nature of the activity allows it. In other words, employers are entitled to require the physical presence at work of all employees; however, teleworking remains a possibility to be considered (even in a hybrid regime, alternating with working at the company’s premises), provided that a teleworking addendum has been concluded with each employee, regulating the conditions agreed by the parties and taking into account the minimum legal content required by Law no. 81/2018, together with the related conditions and obligations.

Support measures

Last but not least, it is also important to analyze what state support measures remain in place and may still be accessed by employers following the end of the state of alert.

Thus, the “Kurzarbeit” support measure, which involves the possibility for the employer to reduce the working time of employees by up to 80% of the daily, weekly or monthly working time provided in the individual employment agreement will remain in force for up to 3 months after the end of the state of alert, i.e. until June 9^th, 2022.

At the same time, even the reimbursement of technical unemployment caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will remain in force, but for a very limited period of time (until March 31^st, 2022, with the note that the Romanian Government has very recently announced that this measure will no longer remain in force).

In addition to these two main measures, there are also a number of other measures, such as paid days off for parents to supervise their children, which, even if they continue to apply in theory for a limited period of time (in this case, until the end of the school year), we are of the view that they will no longer have a practical applicability in the current context.

It remains to be seen what new challenges employers will face in the context of the new , post-pandemic era of the labour market and how they will adapt to the new realities.