Special measures in the event of a temporary interruption or reduction in employer activity

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According to the Labour Code, an employer is entitled to temporarily interrupt or reduce its activity for economic, technological, structural or other related reasons.

A temporary interruption or reduction of activity at the initiative of the employer results in the suspension of individual employment contracts without the approval of employees and without terminating employment relations, the employees being entitled to an allowance of minimum 75% of the basic salary established in their employment contracts.

During the current state of emergency, for the duration of the suspension of individual employment contracts at the initiative of the employer in the event of a temporary interruption of activity, the allowances granted to employees are set at 75% of the basic salary for the position in question and will be paid from the state budget for unemployment aid up to a limit of 75% of the average gross national salary (i.e. RON 5,429 for 2020).

The state aid is only applicable for companies that reduce their activity because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The allowance is subject to the calculation of income tax and social security contributions, with the exception of the work insurance contribution (2.25%).

The beneficiaries of this relief measures are:

  • employers and their employees whose activity is affected by the pandemic
  • other categories of persons, on the condition that they interrupt their activity during the period of the state of emergency: professionals regulated by law (those who run an enterprise), persons who have concluded individual conventions of work according to the Law of cooperation, persons stipulated under Law no. 69/2000 on physical education and sport, natural persons who derive income exclusively from copyright and related rights, staff employed by another legally regulated means other than individual employment contracts; for these categories of beneficiaries, the indemnity paid out from the state budget will be equal to 75% of the gross average wage as provided for by Law no. 6/2020 on the state social insurance budget.

Exceptional situations in relation with the beneficiaries of these measures are as follows:

  • an employee with several individual employment contracts, and at least one full-time contract being in force during the period of the state of emergency, will not benefit from the aforementioned allowances;
  • an employee with several individual employment contracts, all of which are suspended as a consequence of the state of emergency, will benefit from the abovementioned allowances pertaining to the individual employment contract with the most advantageous salary rights.

The procedure for obtaining allowances from the state budget involves the submission of the following documents, by email, to the employment agency of the county in which they have their registered offices:

  • an application signed and dated by the legal representative;
  • an affidavit signed by the legal representative;
  • a list of the persons who will benefit from the allowances, undertaken by the legal representative of the employer.

The documents should be submitted during the current month, for the payment of the previous month’s allowances.

The payment of these allowances from the state budget into the employer’s bank accounts will be made no later than 15 days from the date of submission of the required documents, with employers then being obliged to pay the corresponding allowances to their employees within a maximum of 3 working days from the date on which they received the sums in question.

Source: Emergency Ordinance no. 32/2020 on the modification and completion of the Emergency Ordinance no. 30/2020 for the modification and completion of some normative acts, as well as for establishing measures in the field of social protection in the context of the epidemiological situation determined by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and for establishing additional social protection measures, published in the Official Gazette no. 260 on March 30th, 2020. 

Last update: 4 May 2020

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