Current legislation states that employers must register work contracts with territorial labor inspectorates 20 days since their signing at the latest, and electronically transmit their registry to the labor inspectorate to which they belong within 20 days of hiring their first employee.
The Government has issued a decision whereby firms will be obliged to register a new employee on the day before he/she is due to start working at the latest, announce the end of the labor contract on the very day employment relations cease, and electronically transmit their registry by the weekday prior to the first and subsequent employees beginning work, people close to the matter told MEDIAFAX on Friday.
Employers who fail to observe these deadlines will be fined 1,500 lei (EUR1=RON4.1167) per unregistered contract, up to a maximum of RON20,000. The fine for filling in the general employee record registry with false data will be between RON3,500 and RON5,000.
According to the Government document, labor inspectors’ efforts to discover illegal employment is hampered by workers who cooperate with their employers in claiming they have only been working for a few days, always fewer than 20, and thus avoid fines. Since increasing the intensity and frequency of controls is impractical, it is necessary to amend the existing legislative framework.
People close to discussions between the European Commission, World Bank and the Romanian Government told MEDIAFAX last year that the two bodies had demanded that legislation be amended in order to fight evasion. One of the requests was faster registration of labor contracts.
According to these sources, the changes to legislations will be discussed with labor unions and employers’ associations.