Our answers cover aspects regarding: the Romanian legal framework regulating such vouchers, the conditions under which meal vouchers can be granted by employers, the value of meal vouchers established as per current Romanian legal provisions, criteria for granting them to employees, and much more.
Granting of meal vouchers to employees – practical issues clarified
The procedure and conditions that Romanian companies must observe for granting meal vouchers to their employees are regulated in the Romanian legislation by Law no. 165/2018 (on the granting of vouchers) and the methodological norms for its application. In accordance with Law no. 165/2018, meal vouchers are value tickets that can be granted to employees on a monthly basis, similar to a meal allowance. Thus, the vouchers can only be used to pay for meals or to shop for food.
Meal vouchers can be issued on paper support (in the form of paper tickets), or on electronic format (in the form of a shopping card).
No matter the form (paper or electronic), meal vouchers may be used in any Romanian public catering units, grocery stores, canteens or restaurants, buffets or any other type of establishments selling food, with which the agencies issuing the vouchers have a contract for the provision of those services.
The law doesn’t provide for an obligation/enforcement on the Romanian companies to grant meal vouchers to their employees. Employers are free to decide whether to grant meal vouchers and in what form, possibly after consultations with the employees. The consultation with the employees can be done through legally constituted trade union organizations or through the employees’ representatives, in case there is no trade union organization established in the company.
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According to the Romanian legal provisions which establish the maximum value of a meal voucher for the second semester of 2022, the maximum value that can be attributed to such a voucher is currently set at 30 Lei. Therefore, an employer cannot grant vouchers with a value higher than the one established by law. However, one can choose a lower value for a meal voucher, if they want so.
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As per the Romanian legislation in force, an employer can distribute to each employee a number of meal vouchers corresponding to the number of days worked in the month for which the distribution is done. This is the basic rule according to the legislation in force, and the law does not allow the granting of a larger number of meal vouchers to employees.
Therefore, we consider it important that, when granting meal vouchers, the employer (legal representatives of the company) take into account the number of days that each employee works during each month.
Regarding the moment of granting, according to the legal provisions, the meal vouchers must be granted monthly, in the last decade of each month, for each following month. As an example, for February, meal vouchers will have to be distributed to employees in the last decade (last ten days) of January.
Thus, in the last decade of January, a number of meal vouchers must be distributed for the month of February, corresponding to the number of total work days in February. Subsequently, at the end of February, the employer must recalculate and adjust accordingly the number of vouchers to which the employee was entitled, according to the number of days each of them actually worked in the month of February. The adjustment must be done on the number of voucher the employee will receive next month, and so on.
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An employer may not distribute to an employee a number of meal vouchers greater than the number of days worked in the month for which the distribution is made.
According to the applicable legislation, the periods in which employees take any type of leave: rest leave, medical leave, childcare leave, etc., are not considered work days. Therefore, the employee is not entitled to receive meal vouchers for these days of the month.
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According to the applicable legislation, the regularization of the number of meal vouchers due to employees must be carried out in each following month. This is done by purchasing a number of meal vouchers equal to the number of working days in the month for which it is granted, less the number of additional vouchers already granted in the previous month, and to which the employee was not entitled.
As an example, the regularization of the number of meal vouchers due for February (and which were granted in January) will take place in the last decade of February. Thus, in February, a number of tickets will be purchased equal to the number of those related to March, decreased by the number of undue vouchers related to February.
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According to the Romanian legislation in force, employees who are delegated or seconded outside the locality where they have their regular place of work and who receive a delegation or secondment allowance, are not entitled to receive meal vouchers.
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In the case of employees with several employment contracts (cumulation of jobs), meal vouchers can be granted only by the employer where the employee has the “basic position” established, according to the law.
If it is not possible to determine the employer where the employee has the basic position, the employee will have to choose, in writing, the employer who will grant the vouchers. In addition, the employee is obliged to communicate his exercised option to the other employers within a maximum of 10 working days.
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In the case of employees whose daily working time is longer than 8 hours – e.g., they work in shifts – the number of days for which meal vouchers can be granted is determined by dividing the number of hours in which the employee was present at work at the normal working time of 8 hours per day.
The fractions resulting from the calculation must be considered as a whole day of attendance at work, provided that the total of the resulting days does not exceed the maximum number of work days in the month for which the vouchers are granted.
Therefore, even if the employee was present at work for less than the maximum work days of the month (for example 15 days), but in those days worked a much larger number of hours than the normal working time of 8 hours, then he can receive a number of meal vouchers up to the maximum number of work days of that month.
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As per the labor legislation in force, the employers, together with the legally constituted trade union organizations or, where a trade union doesn’t exist, with the employees’ representatives, can decide the granting of meal vouchers to employees through:
- applicable collective bargaining agreements signed with the trade union, or
- through the company’s internal policies/regulations.
Thus, objective criteria for the granting of meal vouchers should be established, providing for at least the following:
- the number of employees in the unit who can receive meal vouchers and the nominal value for each voucher, taking into account the employers’ own financial possibilities;
- the categories of employees who are entitled to receive meal vouchers;
- selection criteria for determining the employees entitled to meal vouchers, taking into account objective and non-discriminatory reasons, such as: socio-professional priorities and other objective elements specific to the professional activity.
