Last updated: 5 February 2015
Meal vouchers are one of the incentives used by employers in order to motivate employees. Meal vouchers are payment titles issued to employees, allowing them to pay for their daily meal at the office. Because indeed, meal vouchers are payable only for the days when the employee was at work. The value of a meal voucher is of 9.30 RON (approximately 2 Euros).
Until the adoption of Government Decision no. 23/2015, meal vouchers were granted to employees in a material form (i.e. on paper). From now on, such vouchers can be issued in the form of a smart card, according to the employer’s will. Hereinafter you can find a brief presentation of the changes brought by Government Ordinance no. 23/2015.
NEW MEANS FOR ISSUING MEAL VOUCHERS
Please note that in France meal vouchers can also be issued electronically since April 2014.
From now on, further to the entry into force of Government Decision no. 23/2015, employers can choose to issue electronic meal vouchers to their employees – in the form of a smart card. Such card will be nominal and will be credited with the equivalent of the meal vouchers granted to employees, proportionally with the number of worked days.
The smart card issued by specialized entities should in no way allow users to withdraw or deposit money on the card. Thus, employees will only be able to use the smart card for purchasing food or to pay for meals in restaurants accepting such payment method. Employees are also forbidden to purchase non-food products with this card.
Please also note that if food is bought by paying with this card, employees may pay for its equivalent down to the last penny. Meal vouchers issued on paper had an important inconvenient, as restaurants/stores could not give change in cash for
meal vouchers and if employees did not use the entire amount shown on the voucher they could not receive cash for the amount left unspent.
OBLIGATIONS FOR EMPLOYERS AND SPECIALIZED ENTITIES
Please note that employers are not obliged to grant electronic meal vouchers.
Nevertheless, as provided by the implementing regulations of Law no. 142/1998, if meal vouchers are issued electronically, the smart card can only be credited with the nominal value of the meal vouchers, depending on the number of days worked. This operation will be performed by the authorized entity issuing the smart cards during the last days of the reference month.
Employers are obliged to notify employees on the date of transfer on their smart cards of the equivalent of the meal vouchers, as well as on the total transferred amount.
Moreover, the implementing regulations also impose the creation of a system allowing employees to check the amounts available on their cards, as well as the transaction history. In accordance with the regulation, such system must be implemented by the specialized entities issuing meal voucher cards, in partnership with employers.