by Andreea Suciu, Noerr

On 10 April 2018, Law no. 88/2018 approving Government Emergency Ordinance no. 53/2017 was published in the Romanian Official Gazette.

Preliminary info: The legislative context

The Romanian legislative process requires every emergency ordinance adopted by the Romanian Government to be subject to the approval process of the Romanian Parliament, the rightful legislative power in Romania.

The Parliament then adopts a law which can either uphold the legislative changes made by the ordinance with or without amendments, or reject it – in which case the emergency ordinance no longer produces legal effects.

Law no. 88/2018 approving Government Emergency Ordinance no. 53/2017 (”EGO”) upholds the changes introduced by the EGO with several amendments.

Main changes introduced by Law no. 88/2018

• a maximum level for fines in case of undeclared work was set up to RON 200,000 (approx. EUR 42,905)

• the non-observance of the work inspector's decision regarding the ceasing of the activity of the employer at the verified workplace, in the event of deficiencies, shall be considered a criminal offence and shall be sanctioned either with imprisonment, or with fines

• a definition of the place of work was introduced, according to which it is considered the place where the employee performs his or her activity, situated within the perimeter provided by the employer, at its registered office or branch, representative office, agencies or secondary unit belonging to the employer

• the copy of the individual employment agreement of the employee shall be kept at his or her place of work, as defined above, either on paper, or in electronic format by the person designated by the employer

• for mobile and work-from-home employees, the employer shall keep records of working time on a daily basis in the conditions established with the employees by written agreement

• employees belonging to official religious denominations, other than Christian,  must benefit from two days for each of the three annual religious holidays declared by official religious denominations, in addition to the official national holidays or annual leave