New amendments to the Labour Code came into force on 3 October 2020 including the introduction of optional conciliation procedures in individual labour disputes.
The key changes are as follows:
I. External consultants specialised in labour law
An employer and its employees can both be assisted by an external consultant specialised in labour law or a representative of the trade union of which they are a member during the negotiation, conclusion or amendment of an individual employment contract or during an individual labour dispute conciliation hearing.
The parties may also sign a confidentiality agreement regarding any information provided prior to the conclusion of the individual employment contract, the execution of the employment agreement or the conciliation procedure.
II. Conciliation procedure
The parties may agree in the employment contract, or by way of an addendum to the employment contract, on a special clause according to which the parties agree that any individual labour conflict is to be settled amicably through a conciliation procedure with the involvement of an external consultant specialised in labour law and acting in a neutral, impartial and confidential manner.
Payment of the external consultant’s fees is to be agreed by the parties.
Any procedural terms and conditions regarding the challenging of the individual labour dispute are suspended during the conciliation procedure.
The parties may waive conciliation if no solution is reached that satisfies the interests of both parties, in which case they may apply to the competent court for the full settlement of the dispute.
III. Disciplinary investigations
The new legal provisions now expressly provide that the employer may appoint a person (an external consultant specialised in labour law) or establish a commission to conduct a disciplinary investigation.
In order to initiate the preliminary disciplinary investigation, the employee will receive a written summons from the chairman of the commission or the external consultant specifying the subject, date, time and place of the meeting. The employee is expressly entitled to be assisted by an external consultant specialised in labour law.
IV. Organisation of human resources and payroll activity
The employer has the right to organise their human resources and payroll activity by:
- carrying out specific activities in-house
- appointing of one or more employees to whom they assign, via their job descriptions, duties relating to human resources and payroll activity
- contracting external services providers specialised in human resources and payroll, to be coordinated by an expert in labour law.
Source: Law no. 213/2020 on the amendment and supplementation of Law no. 53/2003, The Labour Code, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 893, on 30 September 2020.