The Main Changes in the Labor Code Effective from August 1, 2017, Which Require the Mandatory Use of an Attendance Register!

Updated Labor Code 2017 (Law No. 53/2003)

Art. 34 (1) Every employer is required to establish a general register of employee records. (2) The general register of employee records must be registered in advance with the competent public authority according to the law, in the territorial jurisdiction where the employer's domicile or headquarters is located, from which point it becomes an official document.

Art. 119 The employer is required to maintain at the workplace a record of the daily working hours performed by each employee, noting the start and end times of their working hours, and to present this record for inspection by labor inspectors whenever requested.

CHAPTER IV: Administrative Liability

Art. 260

• e1) employing a person without transmitting the employment report in the general register of employee records no later than the day before the start of activity, with a fine of 20,000 lei for each identified person;
• e2) employing an employee during the period when their individual employment contract is suspended, with a fine of 20,000 lei for each identified person;
• e3) employing an employee outside the working hours established in the individual part-time employment contracts, with a fine of 10,000 lei for each identified person. (Subsections e1, e2, and e3 introduced by GEO 53/2017)
• i) non-compliance with provisions regarding overtime, with a fine ranging from 1,500 lei to 3,000 lei.

(2) The identification of violations and application of penalties are carried out by labor inspectors.

(3) The violations provided for in paragraph (1) are subject to the provisions of the legislation in force.

(4) In the event that one of the acts mentioned in paragraph (1) letters e1)—e3) is identified, the labor inspector shall impose, as a complementary sanction, the cessation of the activity at the workplace subject to inspection, according to the cessation procedure developed by the Labor Inspectorate and approved by order of the Minister of Labor and Social Justice, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, following prior consultation with the representative national trade unions and employers' associations.

(5) The employer may resume activity only after paying the imposed fine and demonstrating that the deficiencies leading to the cessation of activity have been corrected: by concluding the individual employment contract, transmitting the employment report in the general register of employee records or, as the case may be, terminating the suspension of the individual employment contract, and the establishment and payment of social contributions and income tax related to the wages due to the worker for the period during which they performed undeclared work. (Paragraphs 4 and 5 introduced by GEO 53/2017.)