COVID – 19. PROCEDURE FOR PARTIALLY RECOVERING FROM AJOFM THE INDEMNITY PAID TO EMPLOYEES DURING THE „TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT” PERIOD

.

In the Official Bulletin of March 21, 2020 the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE No. 30/ March 21, 2020 was published. It provisions the situations when the state will bear the „technological unemployment” of the employees whose employment agreements were suspended given the decrease or interruption of the companies’ activities.
In the newsletter sent on March 21, 2020, we presented the company categories that can benefit of the tax facility and the total amount of the unemployment indemnity which the company will be able to recover from the state, following to provide details on the procedure that the companies would have to follow.

We present below the necessary details for being able to request the partial / complete reimbursement of the unemployment indemnity paid to the employees by the state: 

1. The companies must decide on temporarily suspending the employment agreements of their employees
(PAY ATTENTION TO REVISAL: The cause of suspending the employment agreement must be declared while complying with article 52 paragraph 1 letter c) of the Labor Code)

Documents required: 

  • Substantiation report issued by the employer;
  • Internal Decision of the employer to temporarily interrupt / decrease the activity without terminating the employment agreements, due to economic reasons.

WARNING!  For the companies that decreased their activity as consequence of the effects of the COVID-19 epidemics (and not as consequence of a normative act issued by the authorities), if they decided prior to the date of publishing the normative act (March 21, 2020) to suspend the employment agreements and have registered the suspension of those employment agreements in REVISAL, they cannot request to AJOFM the reimbursement of the indemnity for the technological unemployment period!
Thus, Article XI paragraph (2) letter b) of the Government Ordinance no. 30/2020 provisions that „The employers can benefit of paying the indemnity provisioned in paragraph (1) for maximum 75% of the employees that have ACTIVE employment agreements (meaning, which were not suspended) on the date when this emergency ordinance entered in force.”

2. During the temporary suspension of the employment agreements, the companies will pay to their employees an indemnity of 75% of the basic salary for their job
(meaning of the gross salary for that job, which is provisioned in the employment agreement, item 1 of Chapter J. SALARY)

3. The companies that INTERRUPTED THEIR ACTIVITY according to the DECISIONS ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES according to the law, during the state of emergency that was ordered, and that obtain the certificate on the state of emergency will be able to recover from AJOFM some of the indemnity paid by them for the period when the employment agreement was suspended, for 100% of their employees. The amount to be reimbursed cannot exceed 75% of the gross average salary for year 2020 (75% x Lei 5,429 = Lei 4,072 / employee / month). Practically, the companies will be able to recover the indemnity paid to their employees during the period when the employment agreements were suspended, as it follows:

  • for the employees whose gross salary is below Lei 4.072 / month, the gross indemnity will be recovered completely from the state;
  • for the employees whose gross salary is above Lei 4,072/ month, the gross indemnity subsidized by the state is of maximum Lei 4,072 / month.

PAY ATTENTION to the phrasing:

MILITARY ORDINANCE No. 1/ 2020 provisions that „the activity of…. is suspended”, and not the entire activity:
– „The activity of serving and consuming food and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, organized by restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and other such public places, in premises meant for that, inside or outside those places, is suspended.”
– „All cultural, scientific, artistic, religious, sports, entertainment or gambling, spa and beautification activities, which unfold in closed premises, are suspended.”

MILITARY ORDINANCE No. 2/ 2020 provisions „the activity is suspended”:
– „The activity of dental practices is temporarily suspended. As an exception, emergency dental procedures are allowed”.
– „The activities of retail sale of products and services in shopping centers where several economic entities unfold their activity are suspended. Exception to this are the sale of food, veterinary or pharmaceutical products and the provision of dry cleaning services.”

Given the double meaning, we doubt that the companies having their activities partially suspended according to the MILITARY ORDINANCE No. 1/ 2020 are included in item 3 (more likely, we believe that the institution that issued the ordinance had a clear intention to include them in item 4 below).

Documents required: 

  • petition signed and dated by the legal representative;
  • list of persons who would benefit of that indemnity, which the employer’s legal representative has accepted;
  • model documents can be downloaded from our internal secure servers by going to this link:  https://gofile.me/2hGBu/aLknS5tX2

The documents will be sent by email to the county employment agencies as well as to the Bucharest City Employment Agency, near which the companies have their registered office.
Contact: https://www.anofm.ro/index.html?agentie=&categ=7&subcateg=2

4. The companies that DECREASED THEIR ACTIVITY AS CONSEQUENCE OF THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 EPIDEMICS (and not as consequence of a normative act issued by the authorities), which lack the financial means for paying the indemnity each month to their employees, and which register a decrease of the collected moneys as of the month prior to submitting the request, of at least 25% by comparison to the average collected moneys during January – February 2020 can receive a facility (indemnity borne by the state) for maximum 75% of their employees that have active employment agreements on the date when this ordinance entered in force.
Practically, these companies will be able to recover the indemnity paid to their employees during the period when the employment agreements were suspended, as it follows:

  • for the employees whose gross salary is below Lei 4.072 / month, the gross indemnity will be recovered completely from the state;
  • for the employees whose gross salary is above Lei 4,072/ month, the gross indemnity subsidized by the state is of maximum Lei 4,072 / month.

Documents required: 

  • petition signed and dated by the legal representative;
  • list of persons who would benefit of that indemnity, which the employer’s legal representative has accepted;
  • own responsibility declaration indicating that the employer registers a decrease in the collected moneys as of the month prior to submitting the own responsibility declaration, of at least 25% by comparison to the mean of collected moneys during January – February 2020 and is financially unable to pay all its employees;
  • model documents can be downloaded from our internal secure servers by going to this link:  https://gofile.me/2hGBu/gT1i8VZfE

The documents will be sent by email to the county employment agencies as well as to the Bucharest City Employment Agency, near which the companies have their registered office.
Contact: https://www.anofm.ro/index.html?agentie=&categ=7&subcateg=2

Articole asemanatoare

COVID-19. TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT. NEW FACILITIES PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF ROMANIA TO COMPANIES!

Legea nr. 134 /2012 privind Energia Regenerabila ( eoliana si fotovoltaica)

COVID-19. Procedure on grading the paid days off for monitoring children and partial settlement of the indemnity from the state budget

COVID-19. RESTRICTION OF THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY FOR NEW COMPANIES AND MEASURES CONCERNING THE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS (Military Ordinance no.2 /2020)

Modificarea Codului Fiscal TVA