New facilities for employers choosing to keep their employees after the technical unemployment

As they did not know how to deal with the technically unemployed employees, employers were clarified on Friday evening, after the publication of Decree 92/2020, which are the facilities they can benefit from.

In this article, we have summarized the main provisions contained in the order 92/2020 published in the Official Journal 459/29 May 2020, on the establishment of active support measures for employees and employers in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus, as well as for the amendment of certain regulatory acts.

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As they did not know how to deal with the technically unemployed employees, employers were clarified on Friday evening, after the publication of Decree 92/2020, which are the facilities they can benefit from.

In this article, we have summarized the main provisions contained in the order 92/2020 published in the Official Journal 459/29 May 2020, on the establishment of active support measures for employees and employers in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus, as well as for the amendment of certain regulatory acts.

As they did not know how to deal with the technically unemployed employees, employers were clarified on Friday evening, after the publication of Decree 92/2020, which are the facilities they can benefit from.

In this article, we have summarized the main provisions contained in the order 92/2020 published in the Official Journal 459/29 May 2020, on the establishment of active support measures for employees and employers in the context of the epidemiological situation caused by the spread of SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus, as well as for the amendment of certain regulatory acts.

The Decree states that, from the 1st of June 2020, the employers whose employees have benefited from the provisions of Decree 30/2020, namely the payment of the technical unemployment benefit and employers whose employees had individual employment contracts suspended during the state of emergency or alert, in accordance with Article 52 (1) (c) of the Labour Code and did not benefit from the provisions of Order 30/2020, are entitled, for a period of three months, to the payment of a part of their remuneration from the unemployment insurance budget, which represents 41,5% of the gross basic salary corresponding to the job, but not more than 41,5% of the average gross wage established by the Social Security Act No. 6/2020.

However, employers will have to maintain the employment relations for these employees until the 31st of December 2020, excepting the seasonal workers, for whom termination of employment is due to reasons not attributable to the employer.

This facility will only benefit employees whose individual employment contracts have been suspended for a minimum of 15 days during a state of emergency or alert and who have received the allowance provided for in Ordinance 30/2020 or the provisions of Article 53 of Law 53/2003 – Code of Labor.

Employers subject to restrictions who are not allowed to reopen their activities by the authorities are also given a breathing space. They may choose to receive the 41.5% subvention of the basic salary of employees for three months or to keep applying the provisions of the Ordinance no. 30/2020, which alloes them to pay technical unemployment until the restrictions are lifted.

The procedure for settling the amounts is different. This time, unlike the way in which the technical unemployment benefits were paid, employers will pay in full the equivalent of the salaries of employees and then send, in the period 1-25 of the following month, to AJOFM by electronic means:

  • application signed and dated by the procedural representative;
  • a self-declaration;
  • a list of persons benefiting from this amount.

The settlement of the sums shall be made within 10 days of the employer’s fulfilment of the reporting and payment obligations relating to remuneration and the payment of the sums shall be made by transfer to the employer’s accounts, but only after a control by the AJOFM, that the employers made their declarations and paid the salaries.

An important article of the Ordinance concerns employers, who in the period from 1st of June 2020 to 31st of December 2020 are hiring, for an indefinite period, full-time, persons over the age of 50, whose employment relationships have been ceased for reasons beyond their control, during the state of emergency or alarm, and are registered as unemployed in the AJOFM register. Employers will receive 50% of the employee’s monthly salary for this category of people, but no more than 2,500 lei per month, over a 12-month period.

The same facility is provided for employers who recruit by 31st of December 2020, for an indefinite period, full-time, people between the ages of 16 and 29. The only condition in this case is that people are registered as unemployed in the AJOFM registers, without the obligation that employment contracts were ended during the state of emergency or alarm. Employers will get 50 percent of the employee’s monthly salary, for 12 months, but no more than 2,500 lei.

The provisions in these two cases are also applicable in the recruitment of Romanian nationals who have ceased work with foreign employers and who are in progress in other states, for reasons not attributable to them, through dismissal.

However, the amounts cleared shall relate to the time actually worked by the employees and shall not be cumulated, for the same employee, with subsidies granted to employers who have concluded contracts or agreements with AJOFM pursuant to Article 80, Articles 85 and 934 of Law 76/2002 on unemployment insurance and employment promotion, as amended and integrated.

Employers benefiting from these provisions will be obliged to maintain employment relationships for a minimum period of 12 months from the date of the use-by date of the benefits.

The decree stipulates that employers who end the individual employment contracts of their employees before the deadline are required to return in full the amounts received to employment agencies for each person for whom the employment relationship has been ended before the deadline, plus the relevant interest of the National Bank of Romania in force at the time of the ending of the individual employment contracts, if termination took place in accordance with Articles 55 (b), 56 (1) (d) and (e) and 65 of Law No 53/2003 – Labour Code.