COVID-19: Employment Law - The Romanian state decided to grant support to companies for technical unemployment

24. March 2020

Ștefan Botezatu

act legal Romania

Per GEO no. 30/2020, during the state of emergency, for the period of suspension of the individual employment agreements initiated by the employers due to technical unemployment caused by the effects produced by COVID-19, the affected employees shall benefit from an indemnity of 75% of the basic salary corresponding to the occupied job, which will be borne from the unemployment insurance budget (but no more than 75% of the medium gross salary provided by Law no. 6/2020 on the state social security budget for 2020).
The employers must meet the following conditions:

the employers decide the total or partial discontinuity of their activities based on decisions issued by the competent public authorities as per the applicable legislation, during the state of emergency (in this case, a certificate of emergency situations issued by the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment is required); or
the employers reduce their activities due to the effects of COVID-19 epidemic and do not have the financial capacity to pay all the salaries to their employees, the indemnities being covered by the unemployment insurance budget for maximum 75% of the employees having individual employment agreements active at the date of entering into force of GEO no. 30/2020 (in this case, an affidavit given by the employer is required from which must result the decrease of incomes of minimum 25% in comparison to the average incomes afferent to the period January – February 2020 and the lack of financial capacity to pay all employees).

The indemnity is subject to taxes and other mandatory social contributions that shall be calculated, retained and paid from the indemnities received from the unemployment insurance budget.
In order to obtain the amounts representing indemnities, the employers shall submit a series of documents having the form and content provided by the annexes to GEO no. 30/2020.

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Ștefan Botezatu

act legal - Botezatu Estrade Partners

About the authors

Ștefan Botezatu

Managing partner

Managing Partner and co-founder of act Botezatu Estrade Partners. He has strong expertise in energy regulatory matters covering electricity and gas trading, gas and electricity supply and distribution and production, as well as ancillary services including e-mobility and development of infrastructure for electric vehicles. Throughout his legal career of over 21 years, he has advised an impressive number of high-profile clients active in various business sectors in CEE/SEE and Asia. He is an excellent closer and forward thinker. Stefan is a 'sharp, knowledgeable, pragmatic and efficient lawyer', recognised for his work in competition cases concerning the energy sector. He has extensive experience in Energy, Dispute Resolution, Corporate M&A, Competition and Infrastructure Transactions. Expert in disputes and regulatory matters covering electricity and gas trading, supply and distribution and ancillary services. He has represented important companies in energy arbitration files against State owned entities, as well as in sector-specific disputes against the National Regulatory Authority for Energy and companies from the energy and retail sector in antitrust proceedings against the Competition Council. He is coordinating the White-Collar crimes practice and has been exposed to several cross-border fraud investigation matters initiated based on the FCPA and UK bribery act. Stefan`s expertise also covers handling high profile criminal cases and providing crime prevention legal advice, as well as acting in complex business crime litigation. He has an excellent record of successful outcomes for the firm’s clients and establishing favourable precedents in a variety of areas, with a special focus on criminal law matters in the energy sector.

Laura Estrade

Partner

Expert in energy regulatory and M&A with special focus on and impressive track record in energy sector business transfers, joint ventures, sophisticated M&A transactions, mergers and spin-offs and unbundling matters. Assistance in energy related litigation files against minority shareholders, the National Energy Regulatory Authority and management in companies active in the energy sector.

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