Romania: Major Improvement of the Rules Regarding Short-time Work

On 10.08.2020, short-time work was introduced in Romania for the first time. This was the result of the outbreak of the pandemics, but driven by an initiative of the economy, with an intense participation on the part of STALFORT Legal. Tax. Audit.

After unfortunate modifications had been adopted by the Parliament at the end of the year 2020, on 05.04.2021, Romania has finally published new rules which now are sufficiently flexible and pragmatic, so that short-time work can now really be used in practice.

Historical overview

Despite being the result of long consultations, the provisions published in August 2020 turned out to be lacking flexibility. In December, the Government solved a cosndiderable part of the problems by an Emergency Ordinance, but unfortunately, this act became inapplicable again after only a few days, as a law adopted by the Parliament removed all its effects and even worsened he legal situation.

Talks which have been re-begun have led to a really useful legislation only in April 2021.

An explanation of the short-time work mechanism can be found in our articles on this subject at https://stalfort.ro/en/publications/. In Romania, if the conditions are met, the employer is entitled to reduce the the working hours by up to 80%, and the employee receives a short-time allowance amounting to 75% of his/her lost base salary from the state.

Introduced facilitations

The current modification introduced important new provisions, such as

• The right to reduce the working time by up to 80% (previously 50%)
• The modification of the reference period for the assessment of the conditions for the short-time work (reduction of turnover)
• Necessity of the prior approval of the short-time work by the trade union / employee representatives (a compromise)
• The right to handle the working time flexibly during the short-time work, and also to change the working hours if necessary
• Facilitations related to certain interdictions during the short-time work period, which previously made the legal institution unattractive.

From the economy’s point of view, these modifications are to be seen as a success.

Please find more detailed information at:

https://stalfort.ro/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/20210416_CW_Short-time_work_practicable_again.pdf