How many days off do employees get in Romania?

Whether we are talking about rest leave, public holidays or days granted for special events of the employee, days off are an employee’s right to be granted by the employer.

1. Holiday leave

Rest leave is a right of all employees and this right cannot be limited by the employer, and the employee cannot be obliged to cede rest leave or to renounce it, according to the provisions of the Labor Code.

The minimum duration of annual rest leave is 20 paid working days, in accordance with Art. 145 of the Labor Code, and is taken every year. In the case of underage employees, employees working in difficult, dangerous or harmful conditions, the blind, other disabled persons, employers must, in addition to the minimum rest leave, grant at least three additional working days of annual rest leave. Employees undergoing in vitro fertilization are also entitled to three additional rest days per year.

2. Public holidays

Article 139 of the Labor Code specifies which days are public holidays on which no work is performed. The list of public holidays includes both days associated with important religious holidays and those associated with social holidays:

• January 1st and 2nd
• January 6 – Baptism
• January 7 – Sobor of St. John the Baptist
• January 24 – Day of the Union of the Romanian Principalities
• Good Friday, the last Friday before Easter
• First and Second Easter
• May 1st
• June 1st
• First and second day of Pentecost
• August 15 – Assumption
• November 30 – St. Andrew the Apostle
• December 1st
• First and second days of Christmas

Other days off may be determined by the applicable collective agreement. Public holidays on which no work is performed shall not be included in the annual rest leave.

3. Days off for special events

Article 152 of the Labor Code provides that employees are entitled to paid days off in case of special family events. Most often, such days off are granted for the employee’s marriage, the birth of a child, the death of a family member (spouse, child, parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, brothers, sisters).

The nature of the events and the number of days off are laid down by law, collective bargaining agreement or internal regulation. Until 2011, days off for special events were included in the Single National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCMN), but with the entry into force of Law 62/2011 – Social Dialogue Law, the CCMN is no longer negotiated. The only employees for whom the granting of these days is regulated, according to art. 24 of H.G. no. 250/1992, are those in the public administration and budgetary sector.

Paid days off for special events, established by collective bargaining agreement or by internal regulation, are not included in the annual rest leave.

4. Days off for family emergencies

An employee may be granted 10 days off per year for family emergencies, as provided by Art.152^2 of the Labor Code. Employees have the right to be absent in unforeseen situations, caused by various emergencies of illness or accident, which make the employee’s immediate presence at work indispensable.

The absence may be subject to prior notification of the employer and with recovery of the period of absence until the employee’s normal working hours have been covered. In these circumstances, absence from work may not exceed 10 working days in any calendar year.

5. Caretaker’s leave

According to Art. 152^1 of the Labor Code, the employer is obliged to grant caregiver’s leave to the employee in order to provide personal care or support to a relative or a person living in the same household as the employee due to a serious medical condition. This type of leave is for 5 working days in a calendar year and is granted at the written request of the employee.

During this period, employees are entitled to paid days off, which are not included in the annual rest leave and constitute seniority in employment and specialty.

6. Unpaid leave

Art. 153 of the Labor Code provides that employees are entitled to unpaid leave to deal with personal situations. The duration of leave without pay to deal with personal situations shall be laid down in the collective employment contract or in the applicable internal regulations.

Leave without pay is a period during which the employee interrupts his or her work without receiving remuneration for that period. The individual employment contract shall be suspended by agreement of the parties; the period of unpaid leave shall be deducted from seniority.

7. Leave for vocational training

Vocational training leave may be granted with or without pay, based on Art. 154 of the Labor Code.

Unpaid leave for vocational training is granted at the employee’s request, for the period of vocational training that the employee is following on his/her own initiative. The Labor Code stipulates that the employee must notify the employer of the duration of the unpaid training period, the duration, the name of the training institution and the starting date at least one month before the training period. The employer may reject the employee’s request only if the absence of the employee from work would seriously jeopardize the performance of the activity.

The duration of training leave may not be deducted from the annual rest leave and shall be treated as a period of actual work for the purposes of entitlements other than pay.