Background information

In the current pandemic, during the state of emergency or alert, the government had to adopt a series of measures to restrict economic activities, in order to protect the citizens’ health. These measures have had a number of negative consequences for companies and employees, by reducing revenues or losing jobs. The measures adopted by the current emergency ordinance stimulate people to be active in the labour market and encourage employers to use alternative forms of work.

Content of measure

The government is expanding the list of employees categories that receive state allowances due to the decrease of activity during the pandemic. Thus, the new regulations refer to the benefits paid from the unemployment insurance budget to compensate for loss of salary income as a result of reduced working hours, the measure also applies to apprentices or day labourers (35% of the daily income is granted from the state budget, for a three-month period, under certain conditions) or loss of income from work, in the case of professionals or persons who have concluded individual employment contracts for a determined period of up to three months (41.5% of the average gross salary income for 2020; the average gross salary income is RON 5,429 or €1,100).

Use of measure

The current normative act (GEO 132/2020) can stop the termination of employment contracts (according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, on 28 May 2020 the number of individual labour agreements terminated was 429,585), provides immediate support to stimulate the employment of people who have lost their jobs or were unable to get employed and who are subject to the risk of social exclusion. Failure to adopt these measures could negatively affect the daily living income of approximately 600,000 employees and professionals. Estimated costs of all proposed measures stipulated by GEO 132/2020: RON 4,321,260 (€888,130).

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Workers in non-standard forms of employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Trade unions Employers' organisations Company / Companies Other social actors (e.g. NGOs) Public employment service	National funds

Social partners

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

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies

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

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

The involvement of social actors was achieved through repeated consultations within the Economic and Social Council, which has in its composition representatives of employers' organisations, trade unions, NGOs, civil society. This body has an advisory role regarding the normative activity of the Parliament and the Government.

Views and reactions

The Economic and Social Council had a series of consultations on this normative act, the opinions of its representatives being among the most diverse. Thus, some representatives of trade unions, employers and NGOs gave a favorable opinion, others had comments on the need to provide incentives during the state of alert, resolving contradictions that lead to violations of contractual obligations, lack of clarity of some provisions, etc. However, there were also representatives who gave an unfavorable vote to the normative act, motivated by the lack of all the necessary approvals from the ministries involved.

Sources

• 07 August 2020: EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no. 132 of 7 August 2020 on support measures for employees and employers in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as well as for stimulating employment growth (legislatie.just.ro)