A. Amendment of Labor Code

Labor Code was amended by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 53/2017, published in Official Journal no. 644 as of 07.08.2017. The purpose of these changes is to strengthen the fight against undeclared work, by introducing new sanctions, such as:

1. Article 16 (4) of the Labor Code provides a new obligation for employers: from now on, employers must store at the workplace a copy of the employment agreements of their employees. Previously, employers had not been required to keep any document in connection with their employees, except for the Employees’ Registry.
Failure to comply with this obligation represents an infringement, sanctioned by a 10,000 Lei fine (approximately 2,300 Euros).
In addition, article 260 of the Labor Code also introduces new circumstances considered as undeclared work, such as:

• Receiving a person at work without registering the employment relationship in the electronic register of employees (REVISAL) on the day prior to him/her starting work, at the latest;


• Receiving a person at work when his/her employment contract is suspended;


• Receiving a person at work outside the working hours provided in the part-time employment contracts.

We hereby remind you that the former law defined undeclared work as follows: receiving a person at work without having concluded a written employment contract on the day prior to him/her starting work.

Please note that, aside from a fine, labor inspectors may apply an additional sanction: to stop the activity of the workplace subject to inspection.

Moreover, the new provisions introduce the employer’s obligation to mention the start and end time of the work hours in the register of hours worked by employees. Until now, the employer was only required to keep records of hours worked, without marking the start/end time of the employee's work hours.

Finally, another important change concerns the time limit for concluding the addendum to the individual employment contract. Thus, the addendum to the individual employment contract must be concluded before the date when the change occurs, unless the amendment is expressly provided for by the applicable law or collective agreement.

B. Change in Social Security Contributions

Following the approval of Ordinance no. 4/2017, amending and supplementing Law no. 227/2015 on the Tax Code, published in Official Journal no. 598 as of 25 July 2017, starting from 1 August 2017 (for revenues obtained for August), the calculation basis of the compulsory social security contribution for pensions (CAS) and of the compulsory social security contribution for health care (CASS), due and paid by employers, was changed as follows:

If the gross salary obtained pursuant to a full-time or part-time individual employment agreement is inferior to the minimum gross salary guaranteed at the national level, established by Government decision, the calculation basis of the CAS (15.8%) and CASS (5.2%) due and paid by employers is the minimum gross salary at the national level for the number of business days of the month during which the contract was active.

We remind you that, until 1 August 2017, the calculation basis was the gross revenue obtained by the employee, regardless of the amount.

Currently, the minimum gross salary at the national level is 1,450 Lei (approximately 322 Euros).

There are also some exemptions from this rule, among which, for example, revenues obtained by students up to 26 years of age who are currently in school, apprentices, as defined by the law, up to 18 years of age, disabled persons who are allowed by the law to work less than 8 hours per day or old age pensioners in the public pension system…