Law with new rights for employees promulgated by President Iohannis. Employees can request paternity leave and five days leave to care for a relative

President Klaus Iohannis promulgated on Monday a law that introduces new rights for private sector employees and civil servants, according to Agerpres. The law amends and supplements the Labour Code and the Administrative Code, and new rights for employees include paternity leave and leave to care for a relative or a person living in the same household.

The law also stipulates that civil servants can work on teleworking.

The Act amends and supplements Law No 53/2003 and Government Emergency Ordinance No 57/2019 in order to transpose several European directives into national law.

According to the new provisions, the employee has the right to apply for a transfer to a vacant post offering more favourable working conditions if he has completed his probationary period and has at least six months’ seniority with the same employer. The employer is obliged to respond to the request in writing, giving reasons, within 30 days of receiving it, Agerpres reports.

The law also stipulates that the employer is obliged to grant carer’s leave for a period of five working days in a calendar year, at the employee’s written request, in order to provide personal care or support to a relative or a person living in the same household who needs care or support due to a serious medical condition.

The period of this leave is not included in the annual leave and constitutes seniority in employment and in the speciality.

The employee also has the right to be absent from work for a maximum of 10 working days in unforeseen circumstances caused by a family emergency due to illness or accident, which make the employee’s immediate presence indispensable, subject to prior notification of the employer and with the recovery of the period absent until the employee’s normal working hours have been fully covered, the legislation also provides.

The employer and the employee agree on the arrangements for making up the period of absence.

Another newly introduced provision concerns the employer’s obligation to grant paternity leave at the employee’s written request, in compliance with the provisions of Law No 210/1999. The granting of paternity leave is not conditional on the length of service or length of service of the employee. Violation of this obligation will be sanctioned with a fine of 4,000 lei to 8,000 lei.

Among the new articles in the Administrative Code is one which stipulates that civil servants may also work in teleworking and home working. The heads of public authorities and institutions may also establish by administrative act other ways of organising working time flexibly.

The duration of teleworking may not exceed five days per month and may be approved for civil servants who have children up to the age of 11, are caring for a relative, have a health condition that does not allow them to travel, or perform activities among those determined by the head of the public authority or institution as being able to be performed teleworking, according to Agerpres.