Amendments to the Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 on parental leave and monthly child allowance, which entered into force on 6 May 2019, introduced new obligations for both the employer and the employee.
Thus, a parent who does not benefit from this right will be allocated at least one month of parental leave. Through the amendments recently introduced by Law no. 89/2019, the employer of the other parent is obliged to approve the month of leave, the period being determined by mutual agreement with the employee. The obligation to grant the leave is now explicitly provided for in GEO no. 111/2010. This holiday month is not transferable, and if the employee refuses it, the allowance for the corresponding month will be lost.
The paid employee also has the right to return to work sooner, in which case he / she will benefit from an insertion incentive for the entire period during which he / she would have benefited from parental leave. However, she/ he has the obligation to notify the employer at least 30 days in advance on the intention to return to work. It should be pointed out that the employee cannot benefit from an insertion incentive and from child-raising allowance.
The parent who opts for the insertion incentive can not be fired while receiving this benefit, and the employer will not restrict his access to the incentive. The ban on dismissal applies only once, for six months after the employee’s final return to the workplace. Exceptions to this provision are the situations in which the downsize comes as a result of the company’s judicial reorganization or in case of bankruptcy.
Failure to comply with these provisions on the insertion incentive and employee dismissal may result in the employer being fined with sums between 5,000 and 10,000 lei.