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On March 30, 2020, 11 PM, the Emergency Ordinance no. 32/ March 30, 2020 (on amending and completing the Emergency Ordinance of the Government no. 30/ 2020) was published in the Official Bulletin of Romania. It substantially amends the conditions for granting the technological unemployment indemnity (the EMPLOYERS ARE FAVORED)!
By comparison to the previous regulations (meaning the Emergency Ordinance no. 30/ March 21, 2020), the next vital modifications were made:
- It was rescinded the different granting of the technological unemployment indemnity, based on the category of the employers that interrupt their activity, as consequence of the military ordinances, or which decreased their activity as consequence of the effects of COVID-19 epidemic. Practically, all companies will benefit of the technological unemployment indemnity for 100% of their employees that are facing technological unemployment and will follow the same procedure for requesting the amounts that represent the technological unemployment indemnity.
- It was rescinded the obligation to submit the certificate of emergency situation for receiving the approval on paying the technological unemployment indemnity borne from the unemployment fund. That certificate will still be issued, but will be used in other circumstances (not for granting the technological unemployment indemnity).
- It was rescinded the condition of granting the technological unemployment indemnity provided that the collected moneys were diminished by 25% as against the average collected moneys during the January – February 2020 period;
- It was amended the total amount of the technological unemployment indemnity. According to the modifications that were published last night, during the state of emergency, the employees for whom the employer decided to temporarily suspend the employment agreement, out of the employer’s initiative, according to article 52 paragraph (1) letter c) of the Labor Code, benefit of an indemnity of 75% of the basic gross salary, but maximum 75% of the gross average salary used for substantiating the law on the budget of social insurances. (Thus, the gross indemnity for the technological unemployment cannot be over Lei 4,071 gross / employee). Only if the employer’s budget allows, it can bear voluntarily, out of its own budget, the different up to at least 75% of the basic salary, which complies with the position (The state will not reimburse the employer for that difference.)
- It was sped up the time for recovering the technological unemployment indemnity from the state budget, thus that it is 15 days of the date of submitting the documents.
NEW procedure of obtaining the technological unemployment indemnity from the budget:
For obtaining the technological unemployment indemnity, the companies will send the next documents by email to the county employment agencies, as well as to the Bucharest City employment agency, near which they have their offices:
- petition signed and dated by the legal representative;
- own responsibility declaration;
- list of persons that would benefit of that indemnity, which the legal representative of the employer has accepted;
- the new model of those documents will be published by an Order of the Minister of Labor. We will get back to you with those models, as soon as they become available.
The documents must be sent to a single email address, which was set up particularly for that (you can find it by going to this link: https://www.anofm.ro/index.html?agentie=&categ=7&subcateg=2), by using your electronic signature.
You must submit the petitions to AJOFM (county employment agency) thus:
- as of April 1, 2020 for the March 16 – 31 period;
- as of May 1, 2020, for the April 1 – 16 period.
Financial implications for the companies, while considering the amendments issued:
- the companies will no longer pay money out of their own budget for the technological unemployment indemnity;
- the companies will request to AJOFM the gross technological unemployment indemnity for 100% of their employees;
- AJOFM will pay the gross indemnities in maximum 15 days as of the date when the documents have been submitted;
- the gross indemnity is subject to taxation and to paying the mandatory contributions to the social insurance budget, but no work insurance contribution is owed (2.25%);
- out of the collected gross indemnities, the companies will calculate, will withhold and will pay the income tax (10%), the contribution to the social insurances budget (25%), and the contribution to the health social insurances budget (10%);
- the companies will pay to their employees the net technological unemployment indemnity in maximum 3 business days as of the date when they have collected those amounts paid by the state budget;
- The term for declaring and paying the tax obligations is the 25th including of the month following that when the payment from the unemployment budget was made.
The ordinance regulates the next new situations, which apply to the employees that have concluded several employment agreements:
1) If an employee has registered several employment agreements, out of which at least one is for full time work and active during the state of emergency period, that person cannot receive the technological unemployment indemnity borne from the state budget.
2) If an employee has concluded several employment agreements and they are all suspended as consequence of the state of emergency, he/she benefits of the indemnity borne by the state budget only for the employment agreement that provisions the highest salary.
The full text of the normative act can be found on our internal secure servers, by going to this link: https://gofile.me/2hGBu/rRGBMiQpv
