The law on equal opportunities and treatment between women and men, amended! Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2022 for the amendment and completion of Law no. 202/2002 on equal opportunities and treatment between women and men and for the amendment of art. 3 para. (21) of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 121/2021 regarding the establishment of some measures at the level of the central public administration and for the modification and completion of some normative acts, effective May 3, 2022. 

The normative act transposes into Romanian legislation Directive no. 1158/2019 on the work-life balance of parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18 / EU, which aims to increase the participation in the labor market of women, parents and all categories of employees who are cared for by relatives or other people they live with, by regulating flexible working arrangements and family leave.

We will present below the main provisions of this normative act:

GEO 57/2022 introduces two new phrases, respectively:

– “carers leave” means a leave of absence for workers to provide personal care or support to a relative or person living in the same household as the worker and in need of significant care or support due to a serious medical condition, as defined by each Member State;
– the term “flexible working hours” means the possibility for workers to adapt their working hours, including the use of distance working plans, flexible working hours or short working hours,

And establishes that the employer may not order the dismissal of the employee during the period in which:

• the employee is on carers leave;
• the employee has exercised her right to request flexible working formulas.

Any unfavorable treatment of a woman or a man on the grounds that she has applied for or taken parental leave, parental leave, parental leave or exercised her right to apply for flexible working arrangements constitutes discrimination in the sense that law no. 202/2002.

SMARTREE Note: It is important to note that, until now, the granting of a flexible work schedule was at the unilateral discretion of employers, but with the advent of new regulations, employers will be required to consider any requests for flexible working formulas and motivate any refusal to grant them.