Romanian Labor Law Updates

The updates concern the standard model of the individual employment contract and the declaration and notification templates required in relation to the cross-border posting of employees.

Order no. 585/2021 on amending the framework model of the individual employment contract and Government Decision no. 654/2021 for the modification of the Methodological Norms regarding employees posting within Romanian territory have been recently issued.

While these two innovative acts concern rather formal aspects, by imposing a few compulsory new references within different documents which define the labor background of one employee, they essentially focus on strengthening employees’ rights.

Through the specific details which must be included in the employment agreement, the new legislative changes impose to specifically mention two different aspects.

These new common clauses which should be comprised by all employment contracts primarily envisage a list of the tasks and duties an employee will be expected to carry out while employed in its position. Hence, clear-cut responsibilities must be defined by each job description as it should allow parties to clearly understand their obligations and the terms of their collaboration. However, such an obligation is not imposed to micro-enterprises of nine employees or less, being understood that for their employees only a short description of the activity should be determined by the employment agreement.

Another amendment refers to the employers’ obligation to inform the employee under 45 years old about the obligation to individually join a private pension found. The main purpose of imposing such a specific new contractual term would be to raise awareness of employees on their legal obligation to choose their pension fund.

In terms of free movement, the legislative modifications impose a new form of the declaration which must be submitted by the companies that post workers in the Romanian territory. This declaration should be submitted to the Territorial Labor Inspectorate at the latest one day before the start of the activity of the posted employee.

Among other changes, a few more new commitments have been inserted regarding the obligation to notify any modification of the term for which the employer should be posted abroad and regarding the terms according to which the authorities should be informed in this respect. Analyzing these updates, the first indications of the reasons behind these adjustments seem to be the need to strengthen the guarantee of free movement of workers.

Given the latest legislative updates, one could notice that the Romanian legislator might currently aspire to develop the minimum standards referring to posted workers, from the host country’s perspective and to set minimum conditions for a well written employment agreement which would further shape a more transparent employer-employee relationship.