The Romanian Parliament has recently adopted a new law providing that one parent can have paid leave when a child’s educational institution is temporarily shut down by authorities due to extreme circumstances. The law was sent to the President for enactment.
In both public and private sectors, the new provisions require employers to grant employees this paid leave if they have children up to 12 years old (or up to 18 years old for children with disabilities). Such paid leave is granted only if the work performed by the employee is not suitable for working from home.
Only one parent can receive the paid leave. Single-parent families are also covered by the law.
During such paid leave, employees are entitled to an indemnity of 75% of their salary for one day of work for each day of paid leave, but no more than 75% of the standard gross average salary, which for 2020 is set at LEI 5,429 (approx. € 1,130).
The indemnity will be disbursed from the Guaranty Fund for the payment of salary claims, which will have to be reimbursed from the national budget by the end of the tax year.
The paid leave is to be granted only at the employee’s request, which must include an affidavit by the other parent stating that she/he has not requested the paid leave.
The Government will now:
- establish by resolution the number of days of entitlement to paid leave;
- issue the procedure for recovering the amounts disbursed by the Guaranty Fund from the state budget by 30 days after the law enters into force.
When the law is enacted by the Romanian President, it will enter into effect three days after its publication in the Official Gazette. The law may also be challenged before the Romanian Constitutional Court.
By Mircea-Catalin Roman, Senior Associate, Noerr
