Employment Flash No. 2/2021 – News on certain types of state support
14.01.2020 – News on the minimum salary, prolongation of the state of alert and procedure for accessing some measures of state support
The Government Decision no. 4/13.01.2021 on the establishment of the minimum gross base salary guaranteed for payment at national level was published within the Official Gazette no. 40 dated January 13th, 2021.
According to these new legal provisions, the minimum monthly gross base salary guaranteed for payment for an average full-time schedule of 169,333 hours/month is of RON 2,300 (approx. 470 EUR).
Consequently, the minimum hourly gross value will be of RON 13.583/hour (approx. 2.8 EUR/hour).
Regarding the minimum monthly gross base salary guaranteed in payment for employees who have one-year seniority in the field from which they have graduated, working in positions that are requiring higher education graduates, the amount of this salary remains RON 2,350 (approx. 490 EUR).
Consequently, the minimum hourly gross value for this minimum salary category is of RON 13.878/hour (approx. 2.84 EUR/hour) for 2021.
In a similar manner, the minimum gross base salary in the construction industry (corresponding to the CAEN codes expressly listed within the law) remains in 2021 at the value of RON 3,000 (approx. 620 EUR).
The Government Decision no. 3/12.01.2021 on the prolongation of the state of alert on Romanian territory was published within the Official Gazette no. 36 dated January 12th, 2021.
According to this normative act and its annexes, from an employment perspective, the main measures applicable up to the present moment, according to the existent legal framework are maintained.
The main such measures are:
a) the obligation to wear protection mask – applicable for all spaces, open or enclosed and also, particularly, at the workplace;
b) where the nature of activity allows, during the state of alert, employers implement work from home or teleworking regime, under the conditions established by art. 108-110 from Law no. 53/2003 – Labor Code, or, as case may be, by Law no. 81/2018 regulating teleworking activity.
c) when the activity cannot be carried out under such regimes, in order to avoid the congestion of public transport, entities having more than 50 employees have the obligation to organize the working schedule by dividing employees into groups, starting and ending their activities at least 1 hour apart.
The Order of the President of the National Workforce Occupation Agency no. 2/06.01.2021 for the approval of the Procedure for granting the state support amounts provided by art. I, para. (1) of the GEO no. 220/2020 was published within the Official Gazette no. 17 dated January 7th, 2021.
According to the Procedure annexed to this normative act, the specific state support for employing certain categories of persons may be obtained based on an agreement concluded between the employer and the Workforce Occupation Agencies at county level, according to the template annexed to the Procedure.
In order to conclude the necessary agreement with the Workforce Occupation Agencies, employers have to submit, by electronic means, the following documents (the necessary templates being annexed to the Procedure):
a) a request;
b) an afidavit given by the legal representative;
c) copies of the identification documents for the persons employed according to the GEO 220/2020;
d) copies of the documents based on which the respective persons started their employment relations;
Particular provisions apply for certain categories of persons or documents, as well as for the situations when the documents submitted are not readable.
In addition, employers submit by the date of 25th of the month following the month for which they request these amounts, by electronic means, to the Workforce Occupation Agencies from the areas where their headquarters are located series of documents proving the payment of salary to the employees in question. Special provisions apply in case these documents are not submitted by the employer or are not readable.
It is also clarified that the amounts in question are granted to employers if the persons they employed, from the eligible categories, are registered as unemployed in the records of the Workforce Occupation Agencies.
The support amounts are granted to the employers monthly, from the date of concluding the agreement with the Workforce Occupation Agency, proportionally to the actual time worked in the respective month by the respective persons employed, but also for the period of the annual leave. The period when the individual employment agreement of such persons is suspended is not considered for granting the support amounts.
The amounts due shall be reimbursed by the Workforce Occupation Agencies, from the unemployment insurance budget, within 15 working days from the date of 1st of the month following the expiration of the term for submitting the documents necessary for the verification and settlement of these amounts.
The establishment and termination of employers’ rights to benefit of these amounts is based on decisions issued by the executive directors of the Workforce Occupation Agencies.
The Romanian version of this newsletter is available here.
