In Romania, employment contracts are generally regulated by the provisions of Labour Law no. 53/2003 or the Labor Code, which provides for a set of minimum general principles to be applied in the employment relations.
In accordance with Article 16 of Law no. 53/2003, the individual employment contract is concluded on the basis of the written consent of the parties, in Romanian, prior to the beginning of the activity by the employee. The obligation to conclude the individual employment contract in written form rests with the employer.
Before the beginning of the activity, the individual employment contract shall be registered in the general register of employees, which shall be sent to the labour inspectorate. The employer is obliged, before commencement of the activity, to give the employee a copy of the individual employment contract.
Moreover, the employer is obliged to keep a copy of the individual employment contract for the employees who work in that place. Work performed under an individual employment contract constitutes seniority. Unmotivated absences and unpaid leave are deducted from the length of service.
The Labour Law emphasizes that employers can assess a worker’s abilities by agreeing on a trial period during which the employer or the worker can freely terminate the contract without having to allege or prove any cause, without prior notice and with no right to any indemnity in favor of the worker or the employer.
The contract may foresee a single trial period of a maximum 90 calendar days, in case of executive positions, and maximum 120 calendar days, in case of management positions. For disabled persons, the trial period can reach a maximum of 30 calendar days. In addition, either party, with a notice period of no less than 20 working days, may terminate the contract.
The official gross minimum wage is established by the Government and amounts to RON 1450 per month. The minimum wages for each job category can be regulated in the collective labor agreements. Salaries cannot be paid at intervals of more than one month.
Essential clauses of the individual employment contract
The person selected for employment or the employee, as the case may be, will be informed of at least the following:
- the identity of the parties;
- the place of work or, in the absence of a fixed job, the possibility for the employee to work in different places;
- its headquarters or, where appropriate, the domicile of the employer;
- the function / occupation according to the specification of the Classification of Occupations in Romania or other normative acts, as well as the job description, specifying the duties of the post;
- the criteria for assessing the professional activity of the employee applicable at the level of the employer;
- job-specific risks;
- the date from which the contract is to take effect;
- in the case of a fixed-term employment contract or a temporary employment contract, their duration;
- the length of the leave to which the employee is entitled;
- the conditions for the giving of notice by the Contracting Parties and its duration;
- basic salary, other constitutive elements of the salary incomes, as well as the periodicity of payment of the salary to which the employee is entitled;
- normal labor time, expressed in hours / day and hours / week;
- indication of the collective labor contract regulating the working conditions of the employee;
- duration of the probationary period;
It is important to bear in mind that the employer has the obligation to keep records of the hours worked by each employee on a daily basis, showing the starting and ending hours of the working program, and to submit to the labour inspectors this record whenever this is required.