The answers explain how to deal with working from home or teleworking situations, as per the latest provisions of the Romanian employment legislation, so you can avoid unpleasant situations with your employees. They also help you ensure the minimum compliance rules are fulfilled, so you can avoid any potential risks.
This is useful guiding, especially in the context of the pandemic, which has determined many Romanian employers to adopt a working from home policy for their employees.
1. What can a company do if an employee does not agree with working from home or teleworking?
As per the Romanian applicable law, the employee’s refusal to consent to the performance of work from home cannot constitute a reason for dismissal, nor a reason for imposing any disciplinary sanctions. This means that, in such a case, the employee and the employer must find, by mutual agreement, an alternative for carrying out the activity at the company’s premises.
2. Are there specific places named by law where teleworking can be carried out?
Teleworking (or work from distance) can be carried out almost anywhere by a Romanian company’s employee. The applicable law does not specify anymore that in the case of working from home or teleworking the employment contracts must also provide the place or places where the activity must be carried out. Thus, as per the labor law currently in place, employees can work from anywhere they want, without the requirement for getting the employer’s prior approval.
3. Should the employer formally approve the place where the employee will work?
With regard to the prior approval of the place where the employee’s activity takes place, the new Romanian legislative provisions imply the idea that telework can be carried out from anywhere, without the prior approval of the employer, as long as the employee does not change the occupational safety and health conditions available at the place/s where he carries out the activity.
4. How can the employer verify the activity of the employee?
As per the new labor law provisions, the Romanian authorities imply the idea that the verification of teleworking of an employee can be done “mainly through the use of technology”.
Thus, this should mean that the employer can exercise the verification of an employee through any technology means they find suitable for their purpose.
5. How should the work schedule be established when employee is working from home?
According to the applicable law, the work schedule of the employees must be organized through mutual agreement between the employer and the employee, and reflected as such in the provisions of the individual employment contract, the company’s internal regulations, and/or the applicable collective labor contract (if one is in place). Therefore, the work schedule of the employee should always follow the rules established together with the employer.
6. Under what conditions can overtime work be performed?
Overtime work may be performed only at the specific request of the employer, and with the prior written consent of the full-time employee. This legislative provision allows us to understand that only full-time employees can perform overtime work.
7. What other information should be included in a contract for an employee doing teleworking, compared to a normal individual employment contract?
The individual employment contract with telework clause is concluded and amended under the conditions provided by the Romanian Labor Code.
A recent government ordinance eliminated from Law no. 81/2018 regarding the telework activity the provision according to which the telework contracts must also provide the place or places of the telework activity.
Thus, in the case of telework activity, the individual employment contract contains, according to the law, in addition to the elements provided by the Labor Code, the following:
8. What are the risks in case of non-compliance with the provisions of the law on work from home/telework?
In case of non-compliance with the legal provisions regarding telework, Law no. 81/2018 provides for several fines, the highest that an employer can receive being 10,000 lei for each employee for which the obligation to provide, expressly, in the individual employment contract or in the addendum to it is not complied with the fact that the activity is performed in telework regime.
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