Employment Flash No. 19/2020 – Latest news in the labor law field
01.09.2020 – Amendment of the measures applicable in the current state of alert, the procedure for settlement and payment of the state support sums under GEO no. 132/2020 and paid days off for parents
The Government Decision no. 729/31.08.2020 on the amendment and completion of Annex no. 3 to the GD no. 668/2020 on the prolongation of the state of alert on Romanian territory has been published within the Official Gazette no. 797, dated 31 August 2020.
This normative act establishes and amends a series of measures applicable during the current state of alert, out of which we mention, form an employment perspective:
a) Certain measures and conditions are established as regards some fields of activity such as cinematography, film production and audio-visual activities, but also activity of restaurants and cafes from inside accommodation units etc. – mainly depending on the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 cases/1,000 citizens and also subject to decision of local authorities, in certain circumstances;
b) The limitations on the number of persons that may participate to open space or indoor private events (including workshops and training courses) are amended as follows:
- maximum 50 persons indoors;
- maximum 100 persons outdoors.
***
The Government Decision no. 719/27.08.2020 approving the procedure for settlement and payment of the sums granted under GEO no. 132/2020 has been published within the Official Gazette no. 794, dated 31 August 2020.
This normative act establishes a series of procedural provisions regarding the access by the employers of the sums corresponding to certain types of state support granted under GEO no. 132/2020 – the support for the implementation of a flexible work schedule (kurzarbeit), the support for the activity of daily workers and that for employees hired for a determined period.
Out of the essential aspects established by means of this Decision, we mention:
a) the necessary documents for requesting each type of state support (the request, affidavit and list of beneficiary employees, specific for each type of state support) – the models of which are to be published/approved soon by the competent authorities;
b) the possibility to submit electronically the necessary documents, under certain circumstances;
The present Decision does not regulate the specific procedures and particularities regarding the teleworking support, that will be adopted separately, by Ministerial Order, which is expected in the following period.
The Government Emergency Ordinance no. 147/27.08.2020 on granting some days off to parents in order to look after their children, in case of limitation or suspension of educational activities that require actual physical presence of their children in educational units or in pre-school units, as a consequence of the spreading of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has been published within the Official Gazette no. 790, dated 26 August 2020.
This normative act establishes mainly that the employees who are parents will be granted paid days off for supervision of their children, in case these can no longer attend classes, following the results of a COVID-19 epidemiological investigation that resulted in a limitation/suspension of educational activity.
The two main cumulative conditions to be fulfilled by the parents in question are:
- to have children up to the age of 12 (or disabled children up to the age of 26), enrolled in an educational unit;
- that the other parent does not benefit from paid days off.
Other conditions and limitations are also established and applicable in what regards certain categories of parents and domains of activity.
The allowance for each day off is paid by the employer and represents 75% of the base salary corresponding to a working day, but no more than the correspondent per day of 75% of the average gross wage used to substantiate the budget of the state social insurance (i.e. RON 5,429).
This benefit will be granted for one of the parents of each child in the situation described above and will be firstly paid directly by the employer to the employees impacted, based on the request and personal declaration/affidavit submitted by these to the employer. Then, the employers will retrieve the sums granted from the Fund guaranteeing the payment of salary claims (state budget).
The templates for the request and affidavit are to be published by means of ministerial order.
Employers are obliged to grant the paid days off to the employees requesting this right based on tis GEO and their non-compliance with this obligation is considered administrative offense, triggering administrative fines ranging from RON 1,000 to RON 2,000 for each employee who is denied this right, but capped at a maximum of RON 20,000.
Note: The provisions regarding fines will enter into force in 30 days from the publication of this GEO within the Official Gazette.
The Romanian version of this newsletter is available here.
