Guidelines for the practical application of the amendments to the Labor Code (First Part)

Earlier this month, the Labor Code underwent several changes. The popular saying says “theory as theory, but practice kills us.” Thus, employers have found that the practical application of legal news is not easy, and authorities do not provide guidance, preferring to apply sanctions. Here are some practical aspects of the recent changes to the Labor Code in an attempt to support those who have to apply them.

Highlighting in the presence register of the lunch break and, if necessary, other breaks needed to the employees and mandatory to be granted by the employer.

Such breaks can be highlighted in the remarks section, even if the legislation does not clearly state this. The legislation, in this case the Emergency Ordinance no. 53/2017 amending and supplementing Law 53/2003 (Labor Code) clearly establishes the obligation of the employer to keep records of the hours worked (actually provided) by each employee, with the task of mentioning the starting time of the program work and the end of it. The law does not refer to compulsory breaks, but only to the actual work done, but in order to remove any concerns about the duration of the working hours, the duration of the breaks to be taken by the employees can be moved to the remarks section. Our law firm’s team is at your disposal and can create, on request, a presence register model that includes this heading.

In particular, related to the lunch break, given that it is granted on a daily basis, and in order not to complicate the procedure of completing the presence register (that is to say, everyday it is necessary to specify the lunch break interval), this lunch break may not be put it in the presence register. Even if, accordingly to the presence register, the employee has spent 9 hours at work, it will be known that the 1 hour overtime was a lunch break, given the continuity and day-to-day nature of it, as well as its inclusion in CIM (the individual labor contract), CC (the collective labor contract) or R.O.I. (the internal order regulation).

If other breaks there are / are given besides the daily lunch break, they will be moved to the remarks section, as mentioned above.

Employees who have part-time contract with the employer “A” and they receive a wage for those hours under the minimum national wage, are required to provide documentary evidence that they have other full-time or part-time labor contracts?

There is indeed the possibility that some part-time employees of “A” employer, who have incomes below the country gross minimum wage and to whom a basis for calculating the social security contribution equal to country gross minimum wage would be normally applied, to have other part-time or full-time labor contracts in force.

Under these circumstances, it is necessary for the employer “A” to require them documentary evidence (copies of the individual labor contract) showing that the person is also employed by other employers, or, as the case may be, to give a statement on his / hers own responsibility that he / she does work only for the employer “A”.

If the employees have other labor contracts in force, and the aggregate incomes represent a cumulative basis of at least equal to minimum gross national wage, the provisions of art. 140 paragraph 2 of the Fiscal Code, related to a basis for calculating social contributions payment, correlated to the national minimum wage and for part-time employees who have income below this level, will not be applied anymore.

We will continue this topic in another article that we will be publishing on August 30, 2017, with guidance on other practical issues.