Wage guarantee fund

Fondul de garantare pentru plata creanţelor salariale

Country	Romania , applies nationwide
Time period	Open ended, started on 22 May 2006
Context	Restructuring Support Instruments
Type	Legislations or other statutory regulations
Category	Employment protection and retention – Income support for people in employment (e.g., short-time work)
Author	Nicoleta Voicu (Association Center for Public Innovation)
Measure added	23 June 2022 (updated 07 November 2024)

Background information

The Guarantee Fund is designed to ensure payment of wage claims arising from both employment contracts, and collective agreements concluded by employers that are in insolvency. The Romanian law does not distinguish between different categories of workers, so the Fund covers all employees, either on fixed-term, or open-ended contracts, and regardless of their position in the company.

Content of measure

Employers must pay a monthly contribution to the Guarantee Fund, amounting to 0.25% of the total monthly wages. By the 25th of every month, employers have the obligation to notify to the fiscal administration the monthly amount of contribution to be paid to the Guarantee Fund. The Fund is administrated by the National Agency for Employment (Agenția Națională pentru Ocuparea Forței de Muncă, ANOFM), through its local agencies. Outstanding wages or compensatory payments and indemnities for temporary interruption of activity can be paid from the Guarantee Fund's resources. The Fund cannot pay the outstanding social contributions of companies in insolvency. The total amount of the outstanding claims incurred by the Guarantee Fund may not exceed the amount of three monthly salaries at national level per employee.

Updates

The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.

29 September 2024

2023: €375 million income from employer's contribution and €4.78 million paid to employee.

2024: €27.29 million income from employer's contribution and €7.85 million paid to employee.

Use of measure

Each year, the law on social security sets certain amounts for the Guarantee Fund for debt salaries, in the fields of both income and expenses. The difference remains at the state budget. This measure is meant to protect the employees in the event of insolvency of their employer, in particular by guaranteeing the payment of their outstanding claims.

2020: €254 million income from employer's contribution and €2.3 million paid to employees.
2021: €263 million income from employer's contribution and €22 million paid to employees.
2022: €333 million income from employer's contribution and €14.5 million paid to employees.
2023: €375 million income from employer's contribution and €4.78 million paid to employees.
2024: €28.39 million income from employer's contribution and €17.10 million paid to employees.

On 23 September 2024 an ordinance of the government amended the social insurance budget. The income for the employer's contribution was increased by approx. €1 million and the amount paid to the employee by approx. €9.3 million.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Public employment service	Companies National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

Unknown
Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

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