A series of legislative changes regarding labor legislation came into force starting with the end of May. First of all, it’s about amendments to the Labor Code and to the Law regarding the social dialogue, but also about changes to the computation method of the percentage from the total number of employees according to which employers have the obligation to hire disabled people. Changes have also been made to the archiving period of the payroll sheet.
1. Amendments to the Labor Code and the Social Dialogue Law
i) Emergency Ordinance no. 42/2023 for the amendment and completion of Law no. 367/2022 regarding social dialogue and Law no. 53/2003 – Labor Code, effective May 25, 2023 and published in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 459 of May 25, 2023
Below we present the main changes brought by this normative act:
a) Social Dialogue Law:
– initiation of collective bargaining: the employer has 15 calendar days, instead of 5 days, from the date of initiation of the negotiation procedures to convene and organize the first negotiation meeting; the meeting term is replaced everywhere by the meeting term;
– during the entire duration of participation in the strike, the CIM or the service report will be suspended at the initiative of the employee, and not by right, as it is now;
– any intervention by public authorities, employers and their organizations in the election of employee/worker representatives or in preventing the conduct of these elections will be sanctioned with a fine from 30,000 to 50,000 lei.
b) Labor Code:
– payment of carer’s leave days;
– the correlation with the new social dialogue law regarding the obligation of collective bargaining for employers with at least 10 employees, instead of 21;
– establishing the competence of the tribunal as the competent court for adjudicating individual and collective labor conflicts;
– establishing an appeal period of 10 days from the date of communication of the decision;
– disputes pending before the courts on the date of entry into force of the ordinance (May 25) are judged by the competent courts on the date of their notification; the provisions related to the competence are also applied to the processes registered in the courts on the date of entry into force of the ordinance.
– the appeal deadlines that started to run and were not fulfilled on the date of entry into force of the emergency ordinances continue to run for 10 days after its publication, i.e. until June 4.
ii) Law No. 140/2023 on the completion of Article 51 para. (1) of Law no. 53/2003 – Labour Code, for amending and supplementing Art. 514 of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2019 on the Administrative Code, and for supplementing Art. 94 of Law no. 161/2003 on measures to ensure transparency in the exercise of public office, public functions and in the business environment, and to prevent and punish corruption, in force from 29 May 2023 and published in the Official Gazette, Part I No 461 of 26 May 2023
The normative act introduces a new situation of suspension of the individual employment contract at the initiative of the employee, namely during the performance, on the basis of a contract concluded under the conditions of the law, of a specific activity as a maternal assistant, personal assistant to the severely disabled person or professional personal assistant.
2. Changes to the calculation of the percentage of total employees where employers are obliged to employ people with disabilities
Emergency Ordinance No. 47/2023 amending and supplementing Law No. 448/2006 on the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities, in force from 26 May 2023 and published in the Official Gazette, Part I No. 466 of 26 May 2023
This normative act establishes that when determining the percentage of at least 4% of the total number of employees in which employers with at least 50 employees are obliged to employ disabled persons, personal assistants of severely disabled persons employed under the law are not taken into account.
3. Changes to the time limit for archiving the payroll statements
Order No 1447/2023 amending and supplementing certain regulations on financial and accounting documents, in force from 24 May 2023 and published in the Official Gazette, Part I No 453 of 24 May 2023
The Act expressly stipulates the five-year archiving period for pay statements: “The mandatory accounting records and supporting documents underlying the entries in the financial accounting shall be kept in the archives of the persons referred to in Article 1 of the Accounting Act for five years calculated from 1 July of the year following the end of the financial year in which they were drawn up, including for pay statements”.