Radio România Internațional

Tag: employers

  • Working in Romania

    Working in Romania

    The Romanian government has approved a law on implementing the Adequate Minimum Wages, with a view to integrating the EU directive 2041 into the national legislation. The gross minimum wages in Romania will be updated according to the purchasing power, the general level of wages and their distribution, in keeping with the wage growth rate and the labour productivity at national level.

    The law will be applied to all categories of employees.  Under the EU Directive 2041 in 2022, the minimum wage cannot be less than 50% of the gross average earnings. At present, the value of the gross minimum wage in Romania is roughly 660 Euros and is expected to rise up to roughly 740 Euros starting July 1st. The medium net wages in Romania in April stood at 1.048 Euros 6.4 Euros higher than in March, says the Statistics Institute. The highest wages were registered in the area of IT services, roughly 2.405 Euros, whereas the lowest were found in the clothing industry, nearly 560 Euros). The law, endorsed by the Executive is to be submitted for urgent Parliament approval.

    Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, has promulgated a law under which paternity leave will be granted to all fathers who are employees under a legal labour contract.  The document does away with the stipulations about the ensured quality of the owner within the social insurance system and introduces some provisions through which other categories of people are included, such as those with contracts for sports activities, individual labour conventions, mandate contracts, management contracts, those involved in activities following a position of public dignity and those under management and administration contracts. The paternity leave has also been extended from five to ten working days and the compensation is equal to the wages of that certain period being funded from the state budget.

    During the periods of extremely hot weather, with temperatures above 37 Celsius and a comfort index over 80, employers in Romania are taking measures to improve the working conditions and maintain the health of their employees. Territorial Labour Inspectorates say that during the periods of hot weather, employees must benefit from physical activity of reduced intensity and pace, from ventilated rooms, and whenever possible the periods of activity must include pauses in shady places. Every employee must be ensured between 2 and 4 liters of sparkling water. In order to avoid illnesses caused by work in hot weather, the personnel will undergo periodical medical examinations in order to discover the cases, which may become vulnerable in periods of extremely hot weather.  The employees in these situations will benefit from reduced working hours or are allowed to change their jobs. Any violation of the present legal regulations constitutes a contravention punishable by fines.

    According to the National Agency for Employment, nearly 44 thousand jobs are available in Romania presently. Most of the jobs are in the area of security guards, 3,099, shop assistant – 2,232 and delivery men – 1,867. Also in high demand is the unqualified personnel needed in the process of assembling and mounting parts, 1,711. Unqualified workers are also needed on various construction sites, 1,685 jobs as well as cargo handlers with 1,381 jobs available. Romania also needs 911 chef aids, 814 road transporters and 779 lorry and van drivers. A complete job offer is available at the webpage anofm.ro.

    (bill)

  • Record-high number of employees in Romania

    Record-high number of employees in Romania


    Romania seems to have reached the privileged scenario in which economic developments are disconnected from political influences. Over the 16 years since the country joined the European Union, it has had as many as 11 prime ministers, most of whom set out to revolutionise the countrys economic and social policies. But governmental instability, legislative inconsistency and the lack of inspiration that accompanied these policies have more often than not disrupted the labour market.



    Today, it seems to have finally stabilised, and Romania currently has nearly 6.7 million employment contracts registered in the national employee registry (REVISAL), 16% more than last year and a record for the past decade.



    Against a reduced overall population of 19 million, according to the preliminary results of the latest census, the number of employees is the largest in the last 10 years, the labour minister Marius Budăi also announced on his Facebook page.



    The most employees, over 1 million per sector, are reported in the processing industry and trade, followed by constructions, transport and logistics, with about half a million each.



    According to the labour minister, the REVISAL does not include certain categories of workers, which are nonetheless covered in the statistics put together by the National Tax Agency. This includes civil servants, military personnel or judiciary staff. The public sector remains the most important employer in Romania.



    The number of jobs filled in public institutions and authorities last year was 1,280,000, and 64% of them were in the central public administration, according to data made public by the finance ministry. More than 600,000 people were working in institutions fully funded from the state budget. The largest number of such jobs, 300,000, was in public education, followed by the Interior Ministry-over 125,000 and the Defence Ministry-nearly 75,000. The Health Ministry has 18,000 employees. And over 460,000 people were working in local public administration in November 2022.



    The year 2022, the mass media in Bucharest concluded, was quite intense for the Romanian employees and employers. Recruitment skyrocketed to a level above pre-COVID-19 figures, and human resources experts say this year companies will continue to compete fiercely over personnel.



    In their plans for 2023, employers remain cautious with respect to new recruitment and to salary increases, but one thing is certain: they have to keep their employees close, to give them balance and a sense of purpose, experts also explained. (AMP)


  • Proposals to amend the Fiscal Code

    Proposals to amend the Fiscal Code

    The Romanian government has analysed, in a first reading, the bill on the modification of the Fiscal Code, which provides for a number of measures which, they believe, will benefit the business environment. Among these measures is the proposal to reduce the income tax to 10% for certain categories of incomes. The government has also discussed several ordinances, which stipulate, among other things, an increase in the minimum gross salary and the reduction of employees contribution to the privately managed pension fund known as Pillar 2.


    The finance minister Ionuţ Mişa has presented the fiscal measures that the government intends to take next year.



    “We intend to cut income tax from 16% to 10% and to also reduce social security contributions, whose payment will become the responsibility of employees. Social security contributions will drop by 2%. The contributions to be paid by employers will also be reduced to 2.25% and will cover the payment of unemployment risk, hazards, medical leave and salary debts.”



    The labour minister Lia Olguţa Vasilescu has announced the governments intention to increase, as of January 1, the minimum gross salary to more than 400 euros. At present, over one million Romanian employees, that is one fifth of the total number of employees, earn the minimum salary. According to the labour minister, the minimum pension and the child-rearing allowance will also be increased.



    “The minimum child-rearing allowance will increase as of January 2018 to 1,250 lei as compared to 1,233 lei at present. The minimum pension will increase to 640 lei and the pension point will go up to 1,100 lei as of July 1, 2018.”



    Minister Vasilescu has also added that the amount to be paid to Pillar 2 will drop from 5.1% to 3.7%. The pension funds Pillar 2 has caused a lot of debates this year, despite the Social Democrats constantly denying rumours that they plan to nationalise this fund. Analysts say the Bucharest Stock Exchange will be most affected by the reduction of Pillar 2 contributions because they will no longer have money for purchasing shares.



    In another development, a survey conducted last month among the members of the Foreign Investors Council has shown that the investors sentiment regarding Romanias business environment is considerably deteriorating, especially as regards legislative predictability and the stability of the fiscal framework. 90% of the respondents said the permanently changing legislation affected the planning of their business. 65% claim the tax burden has increased and 3 quarters believe the business environment has recently deteriorated and that the latest developments have led to a drop in companies trust. The Foreign Investors Council says the authorities should develop a more coherent policy meant to attract direct foreign investments and make the area of fiscal policy more predictable.