Employment

Employment Flash News No. 4/2018

LEGISLATION

Government Emergency Ordinance no. 8/2018 regarding measures adopted in health matters was published within the Official Gazette no. 190/1.III.2018 (and entered into force as of the date of its publication). The normative act regulates, inter alia, new temporary fiscal measures and temporary amendments brought to Emergency Government Ordinance no. 158/2005 regarding social health insurance leaves and indemnities.

The normative act introduces a transitory minimum insurance period (applicable until the 1^st of July 2018) of one month of the last 12 months prior to the month when the medical leave is taken, for granting the following rights:

• medical leaves and indemnities for temporary work inability, caused by ordinary illnesses or accidents unrelated to work;
• medical leaves and indemnities for illness prevention and work capacity recovery, exclusively for situations occurred as result of work accidents or professional illnesses;
• maternity leaves and indemnities;
• childcare leaves and indemnities (in case of an ill child).

Moreover, starting with the reporting obligations for January 2018, the amount of the social insurance contribution is of maximum 10,5% applied to a percentage of 35% of  RON 3,131, corresponding to the number of working days of the leave, as follows:

• during the initial medical leave granted at anytime between January 1^st 2018 – June 30^th 2018 (inclusively), as well as during all medical leaves granted in furtherance to the initial medical leaves granted prior to July 1^st 2018 – for persons that are in/start medical leave for temporary work inability, caused by ordinary illnesses or accidents unrelated to work or for illness prevention and work capacity recovery, exclusively for situations occurred as result of work accidents or professional illnesses;
• during the initial medical leave granted at anytime between January 1^st 2018 – September 30^th 2018(inclusively), as well as during all medical leaves granted in furtherance to the initial medical leaves granted prior to October 1^st 2018 – for persons that are in/start maternity leave, childcare leave (in case of ill child) or maternity risk leaves.

Consequently, the employer/payer shall be obliged to submit amending tax declarations for the indemnities  for 2018 paid  before this normative act entered into force and to pay the difference of indemnity to the beneficiaries, provided that the amount of the social insurance contribution for these indemnities was higher than the capped amount. These obligations are due until the 31^st of March 2018.

These provisions are only transitory, following that at the expiry date of the indicated period of time, the provisions of the relevant  normative acts shall apply, as they were introduced/amended.