A support programme for small and medium-sized enterprises has been approved

In the context of the new economic crisis, the support programme for small and medium-sized enterprises, which aims to grant state facilities for loans granted by credit institutions, was approved. This Regulation was published in the Official Journal, on 4 April, through OUG No. 42.

What do these structures refer to?

The last day of school introduced a new decree amending and supplementing Law 19/2020 on parental leave to supervise children in the event of temporary closure of educational establishments (details of the previous provisions are here). This is the Government Emergency Ordinance No. 41, published in the Official Gazette No. 282 of 03.04.2020.

The new amendments concern:

The Government Ordinance no. 32/2020 has introduced some changes regarding the payment of compensation to freelance professionals (as regulated by the Article 3(2) of the law 287/2009 on the Civil Code) which had to stop the activity due to the effects of SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus.

In short, the new previsions are reformulating the following new rules:

On Monday evening, after long waiting, the Emergency Ordinance on the modification and completion of the OUG No. 30/2020 was published in the Official Journal, which refers to the protection that the State will guarantee to the employees during the state of emergency, in the event of suspension of individual employment contracts, at the initiative of the employer, in accordance with Article 52 (1) (c) of Law 53/2003 – Labour Code. Shortly, we are talking about the ordered regulation governing the technical unemployment during the SAR-cov-2 crisis.

As we intended, but did not hope, the ordinance was in support of all employees affected by the spread of SAR-virus cov-2, eliminating the differentiation between employees whose employers have been forced to close down completely or partially on the basis of the decisions taken by the public authorities and those who have been indirectly affected by the measures taken.

According to a Government Ordinance (GEO 33) published this evening (30.03.2020) in the Official Gazette, companies will be able to benefit from discounts if they pay their taxes on time.

Thus, taxpayers paying corporate income tax, regardless of the tax return system, who pay their tax due for the first quarter of 2020, respectively for the prepayment for the same quarter, until April 25, 2020 inclusively, benefit from a 5% or 10% discount, calculated on the income tax due. Microenterprises also benefit from this facility, respectively a 10% discount.

We present below the article: 

In the recent days we have received many questions from customers, partners, collaborators, but also from people outside our contacts, on how anti-crisis measures are applied within companies.

In order to cope with the large number of requests, but also because most of the questions are repeated, we are drawing here a list of quick questions and answers, grouped by category, a mini-guide to help companies and employees navigate more easily through this difficult period. Consider it a crisis survival kit.

This evening (25th of March 2020) the order for issuing the Emergency Certificates for the companies whose activity has been affected by the SAR-cov-2 pandemic was published in the Official Gazette.

Which are the rules?

• the Emergency Certificates (EC) will be issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment;

• the Certificates are released, on the basis of the applicants’ request, which are the business entities affected by the SAR-cov-2 pandemic;

• The applicants are the legally authorised persons of the business entities under the provisions of OUG 30/2020 and OUG 29/2020, respectively:

  READ MORE

On the 16 March 2020, the President of Romania signed the decree to establish the State of Emergency in Romanian for a period of 30 days.

Among the measures introduces by the new regulations, the Article 45 is stating the following:

“Al.1. During the state of emergency, the work of the National Office of the Trade Register and of the regional offices of the Trade Regiater continues with regard to the registration of changes related to the legal entities and rnatural persons registered in the Trade Register. These registrations will be carried out by electronic means, based on the changes requests and additional documents deposited in electronic form, with the electronic signature incorporated.

The Romanian Government adopted, through the Emergency Ordinance, a series of measures in the field of social protection in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of SAR-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Thus, Amendments and additions have been made to Act 19/2020 on the granting of leave to parents for child supervision in the event of temporary closure of educational establishments, in the sense that:

• the notion of “parent” for the purposes of the law has been clarified;

  READ MORE

The Romanian government today came up with a package of measures to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis caused by the new coronavirus.

According to the announcement made by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, those measures were taken that were considered absolutely necessary to support the employees and employers affected by the epidemic Coronavirus, such as: Government support for technical unemployment costs for employees, on the basis of specific conditions, increase in the budget allocated for the settlement of sick leave, and credit for SMEs, for investment and securing working capital.

Many companies are or will soon be severely affected by the spread of SAR-CoV-2 coronavirus. Some companies will probably be in a position to adopt the solution of technical unemployment, which involves temporary cessation of activity, i.e. temporary suspension of employment, but also payment of minimum 75% of the basic salary.

Unfortunately, in these difficult days, we are the victims of a serious disinformation coming from the ANAF.

A few days ago the finance minister Florin Citu announced through a public announcement on his Facebook page several measures that will be taken in favor of the business environment to combat the effects of the current crisis. Shortly thereafter, ANAF published on its website an official statement containing the same measures. You can find it on the ANAF website, here, and also in the attached image. Details of these provisions are also available here.

• it is established which are the working days for which the parents will receive an allowance.
  
  READ MORE

Given the multitude of new regulations, press releases and confusion created in the media, we are resuming the main economic and fiscal-budgetary measures regulated by the 21th of March 2020.

The concrete measures established by the Government through the 29/2020 Emergency Decision are the following:

According to a draft decision of the Romanian Government to be approved, in order to benefit from the measure adopted by the Government, which will cover from the unemployment insurance budget the benefits enjoyed by employees whose individual employment contracts are temporarily suspended on the initiative of their employer (pursuant to Article 52 (1) (c) of Law 53/2003 – Labor code, as modified and integrated, due to the effects of SAR-Cov-2 virus, companies must obtain a certificate of emergency situations (CSU).

How to request CSU

The request for issuing emergency situation certificates (CSU) will be made exclusively via the http platform://prevenire.gov.ro/, the platform will contain a dedicated section and will be operational within 5 days of the adoption and publication of the draft decision in the Official Journal.

Within the platform, the applicant shall provide information on:

The current context, triggered by the COVID19 epidemic, is already creating numerous difficulties and challenges for companies, with a new economic crisis on the horizon. The bill on the amendment of certain provisions of the Tax Code to change the payment deadlines for a series of substandard taxes in the next period was presented to the Chamber of Deputies yesterday.

Therefore, the taxes and duties in the bill are:

• income tax for fiscal year 2019 and first quarter 2020;

• income tax on micro-enterprises for the first quarter of 2020;

• payroll taxes and salaries between February and April 2020;

• Social health contributions related to wages received in the period February-April 2020;

  READ MORE

We are living these days an exceptional period, in which all things happen differently than we were used to. But on how we will all mobilize to overcome this moment will also depend on the future evolution of things. And at such times, we believe that we must prove solidarity and contribute with everything we can to provide support to those around us.

At Ascent Group, our main resource is know-how. And these days we receive an avalanche of questions related to the latest legislative measures, the declaration of the state of emergency, the alternatives that employers have to make work more flexible during this period, medical leave, quarantine, fiscal measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis, etc.

As a result of the difficult economic context caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Minister of Finance, through a press release from the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) announced today (Monday, 16.03.2020) a series of measures to support the business environment.

Below you can find an overview of the main provisions:

Today, March 16, 2020, the President of Romania signed the Decree on establishing the state of emergency on the territory of Romania, for a period of 30 days. The President shall request Parliament to approve the measure adopted, within a maximum of 5 days from his issuance date.

Here are some of the measures that have an impact on the economic and social life:

In the economic field:

The press office of the National Health Insurance House published today, on the official website of the institution, a series of recommendations regarding the granting of medical leave and the quarantine payment.

According to the published text, in order to prevent illnesses and to recover the capacity to work, the insured persons can benefit from leave and allowance for quarantine, according to the regulations contained in the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 158/2005 regarding the holidays and indemnities of social health insurance, with the subsequent modifications and completions, as well as in the Norms of application of its provisions, approved by the Order of the Minister of Health and of the president of CNAS no. 15 / 1.311 / 2018, as subsequently amended and supplemented.

In the context created by the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemia, employers play a major role in reducing the risk of employee contamination with the new virus.

Apart of the implementation of additional hygiene measures and the correct information of employees on how to protect themselves, companies can adopt, in the framework of labour relations, solutions that make work schedule and the way of work more flexible.

One of the measures may be the decaling of the work programme, as state Secretary Raed Arafat recommends in the middle of last week.

 As a result of the courses suspension in pre-university education in Romania, between March 11 and March 22, 2020, the public authorities have decided to take measures to help parents who cannot leave their children unattended.

Therefore, the Chamber of Deputies adopted on 12.03.2020, by unanimous vote, the legislative initiative that obliges all employers, both public and private, to grant paid days off to one of the parents in the situation of temporary closure of the schools due to adverse weather conditions or other extreme situations decreed by the competent authorities with responsibilities in the field.

The law also applies to single persons from the single-parent family, to the legal representative of the child and to the person designated to exercise the rights and fulfill the parental obligations towards the child.


Therefore, free days are granted for as long as the authorities decree the closure of schools.

The summer brouth a new Human Resources Manager in Ascent Group’s team. Starting in mid-June, Florina Băbău joined the Ascent Group team to coordinate the human resources activity of the group.

Florina is a graduate of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Western University of Timisoara and holds numerous certifications in the field of management and human resources. Being very passionate about learning and discovering new ways of developing people, Florina is currently continuing her education at the School of Psychology and Psychodrama.

Professionally, Florina has over 15 years of experience in human resources, both in multinational and local companies, in various roles such as: Improvement Coordinator, and subsequently Training & Development Coordinator for Leoni Wiring Systems Arad, HR Manager within ARED group, or HR Recruitment & People Development at Coficab Eastern Europe.

On the 21^st of June the Emergency Ordinate number 43/2019 came into force. It brings significant changes to the regulations that have previously governed the construction industry.

Briefly, the changes brought by the EO 43/2019 are based on four pillars. These have implications for the minimum wage in the industry, on the one hand, and for the necessary conditions employers and employees need to fulfil in order to enjoy the financial benefits, on the other.

 I. Minimum wage.

For the period comprised between 01.01.2020 and 31.12.2028, the minimum wage in the construction industry will be 3.000 RON, for a normal work schedule averaging around 167,333 hours per month. This will represent, on average, 17. 938 RON per hour.

Ascent Group continues it’s expansion plans, and July 2019 marks the opening of a new office, in  Piatra Neamț.

The expansion decision is based both on Ascent Group’s strategic plan to be present in all Romanian’s regions and the business potential of Romania’s North-Eastern region, which is growing mainly on the IT&C serivces and shared services centers. An important role in the office opening decision played also identifiction of the right local partner.