Facilities granted by the state during the state of emergency

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 (Official Gazette no. 231 / 21.03.2020)

Free days paid for parents

– Parents of children who are forced to stay at home can benefit from paid days off, when the schools are temporarily closed due to weather or other reasons (due to coronavirus), whether the parents are employed in the public or private environment;

– In order to grant paid days off in the case of temporary closure of schools (except for working days during school holidays), one of the parents will have to submit an application to the employer accompanied by a declaration on their own responsibility, stating that the other parent does not he also submitted such a request or is not in the situations provided by law for which no paid days off are granted, as well as a copy of the child’s/children’s birth certificate. The application form is provided as the annex of Government decision no. 217/2020 for the application of the provisions of Law no. 19/2020 regarding the granting of free days to the parents for the supervision of the children, in the situation of the temporary closure of the educational units published in Official Gazette no. 230/21.03.2020.

– There are no paid days off in situations where one of the parents is on child-raising leave, is the personal assistant of one of the dependent children, is on vacation leave or without payment or does not obtain revenues subject to income tax, or is in technical unemployment;

– Free days will be granted only to parents whose children are up to 12 years old (18 years for children with disabilities), and the work place does not allow work at home or telemarket, and these days, parents will receive from employers a compensation of 75% of the basic salary corresponding to a working day, but not more than the correspondent per day of 75% of the average gross salary used to substantiate the state social insurance budget. The indemnity is subject to the taxation and payment of social insurance contributions that are borne by the employer.

– The employer will pay the compensation to the employees and then they will request electronically at settlement only the amounts representing the net allowance, actually collected by the parent. The application is submitted to the agency for employment (AJOFM) in which the territorial area operates.

– According to GD no. 217/2020 the request will be accompanied by the following documents:

a) the list of employees who have benefited from the free days, as well as the allowance granted during this period;

b) copies from the payment states from which the award of the indemnity may be granted;

c) the declaration on the own responsibility of the legal representative of the employer, attesting that the list of employees contains the persons who fulfill the conditions required by law to benefit from paid days off; the model of the declaration is approved by order of the president of the National Agency for Employment, which is published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I;

d) proof of payment of the contributions and taxes related to the month in which the allowance was paid.

– The application, accompanied by the above documents, is sent by electronic mail to the electronic address communicated by the agencies for the employment of the county, respectively of the municipality of Bucharest, no later than 30 days from the date of the payment of the contributions and taxes related to the compensation.

– In case the request accompanied by the documents required by law cannot be transmitted by electronic mail, they will be transmitted by any other means of communication.

– Settlement of the amounts paid as indemnity for free days paid to the parents is made within 60 calendar days from the date of registration of the ultram online australia documents submitted by the employer.

– The agencies for county employment, respectively of the municipality of Bucharest have the obligation that, within 24 hours from the receipt by electronic mail or by other means (directly at the counter or by post) of the documents submitted by the employer, to communicate to the employer the number request registration.

Insertion stimulus

– The insertion stimulus is granted for a period of 90 days in the case of persons who, starting with March 21, 2020, are in one or more of the following situations:

  • benefit for medical leave and allowances for temporary incapacity for work, caused by common illnesses or accidents outside work, medical leave and allowances for the prevention of illnesses and recovery of work capacity, exclusively for situations resulting from work accidents or occupational diseases, medical leave and allowances for the care of the sick child;
  • benefit for the leave provided by Law no. 19/2020 regarding granting free days to parents for the supervision of children, in the situation of temporary closure of educational units;
  • they are in technical unemployment according to art. 52 paragraph (1) lit. c) of the Labor Code;
  • they were suspended or terminated their employment or service relationship, as a result of establishing the emergency situation.

– If, after the 90-day period, the entitled person realizes income subject to income tax, then the insertion incentive is granted, according to the law, until the child reaches the age of 3 or 4 years in the case of the disabled child.

– The provisions presented above apply properly also to the persons who have a disabled child and have a working program reduced to 4 hours until the age of 18 years.

Technical unemployment

– It enters into force starting March 21, 2020.

– During the state of emergency, for the period of temporary suspension of the individual employment contract, at the initiative of the employer, according to art. 52 paragraph (1) lit. c) from the Labor Code, as a result of the effects produced by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the indemnity that the employees benefit from are set at 75% of the basic salary corresponding to the occupied work place and are supported from the unemployment insurance budget, but no more than 75% of the average gross salary. The average gross salary for the year 2020 is 5,429 lei. Maximum 75% of the average gross salary represents 4,072 lei, the net equivalent of 2,382 lei.

– The indemnity is subject to the taxation and payment of the compulsory social contributions according to the Fiscal Code (there is no insurance contribution for the work). The calculation, withholding and payment of income tax, the contribution of state social insurance and the contribution of social health insurance is made by the employer from the indemnity collected from the unemployment insurance budget. The declaration of this indemnity is made by the statement 112 “Declaration regarding the payment obligations of the social contributions, the income tax and the nominal evidence of the insured persons”. The term of payment and declaration of fiscal obligations is given 25, inclusive, of the month following the month in which the payment is made from the unemployment insurance budget.

– Employees can benefit from these allowances from employers which:

  • discontinue the activity in whole or in part based on the decisions issued by the public authorities during the emergency state decreed, and hold the certificate of emergency situations issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment (a normative act is to be published regulating the procedure of obtaining it);
  • reduce the activity due to the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic and do not have the financial capacity to pay the payment of all the salaries of their employees. Employers can benefit from the payment of the technical unemployment allowance for up to 75% of the employees who have individual labor contracts active on March 21, 2020. In this case, the payment of the technical unemployment benefit will be made on the basis of a declaration on their own responsibility from which can be seen that the employer registers a decrease of the previous month’s receipts, with a minimum percentage of 25% compared to the average of the incomes from January-February 2020, and that he does not have the financial capacity to pay all the employees.

– In order to grant the technical unemployment allowance, employers must submit electronically to the agencies for county employment within the radius of which they have a registered office accompanied by the list of persons who will benefit from this allowance. They are submitted in the current month for the payment of the previous month’s allowance. Payment from the unemployment insurance budget for these allowances is made no later than 30 days from the submission of the documents and can be covered by external funds non-reimbursable through the Ministry of European Funds.

Contact an Advisor

If you have any questions regarding this topic and how it might have an impact on your business, please contact the Mirus Consultant with whom you regularly work, or:

Ionut Zeche

  • Tax & Legal
  • Bucharest
  • + 40 (31) 228 20 77