According to Art. 2 lit. c) of LAW DECREE (OUG) 96/2003 on the protection of maternity in the workplace, “the pregnant worker is the woman who notifies the employer in writing of her physiological state of pregnancy and attaches a medical document issued by the family doctor or specialist attesting to this condition.”
Within 10 working days after receiving the above notice, the employer must notify the labor doctor, as well as the territorial labor inspectorate in whose territory he or she carries out his or her activities.
The penalty for failure to comply is an administrative fine of 2,500 lei to 5,000 lei.
The employer has an obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the employee’s pregnancy and will not inform other employees except with her written consent and only in the interest of the proper conduct of the work process when the pregnancy is not visible.
The occupational physician issues an assessment report in which the risks to the safety and/or health of the pregnant worker are identified and also indicates the measures necessary to prevent these risks.
The employer will notify the worker in writing of the outcome of the assessment of the risks to which he or she may be exposed in the workplace, the measures to be taken, and the rights he or she has. If the arrangement of working conditions and/or working hours is not technically and/or objectively possible or cannot be demanded for well-founded reasons, the employer will take the necessary measures to change the respective employee’s workplace.
If the employer, for objectively justified reasons, is unable to assign the employee to another job without risk, the pregnant employee is entitled to maternity leave.
Based on the recommendation of the family doctor, the pregnant employee, who for health reasons cannot perform the normal working hours, is entitled to a reduction of 1/4 of the normal working hours, while maintaining the salary from employment , fully paid from the salary fund of the employer.
The employer is obliged to grant pregnant workers a dispensation for prenatal examinations within a maximum of 16 hours per month, on the recommendation of the family doctor or specialist, if the investigations can only be carried out during working hours, without decreasing salary entitlements.
In addition, the employer will inform by posting in visible places for a period of 6 months in each of its units about the rights that pregnant workers have regarding maternity protection at work. Pregnant, nursing and lactating women may not be forced to work at night.
If the health of pregnant workers is impaired by night work, the employer is obliged, based on a written request from the worker and a medical document stating the period during which her health is impaired by such work, to transfer her to a daily work place, while maintaining her gross monthly base pay.
At the request of the pregnant employee who is currently doing unhealthy or unbearable work, the employer is obligated to transfer her to another job while maintaining her gross monthly base salary. According to Article 21 par. (1) (a) of Government Emergency Ordinance No. 96/2003, the employer is prohibited from ordering the termination of employment or service in the case of the pregnant worker, the worker who has just given birth, and the worker who is breastfeeding for reasons directly related to her condition. Also according to Art. 60 par. (1) letter c) of Law 53/2003 – Labor Code “Dismissal of employees may not be ordered: […] c) during the period in which the worker is pregnant, to the extent that the employer has become aware of this fact prior to the issuance of the dismissal order.” In Decision No. 1 of January 14, 2020 concerning the objection of unconstitutionality of the provisions of Article 60 par. (1) c) of Law no. 53/2003 – Labor Code, the Constitutional Court holds that the prohibition of dismissal is strictly limited to the reasons directly related to his condition, and not to the other cases in which the disciplinary termination of the individual employment contract is a result of disciplinary offenses, gross misconduct, unjustified absence from work for a long period, failure to comply with labor discipline in general, termination of employment for economic reasons or collective dismissals. The Court first notes that a dismissal decision taken for reasons essentially related to the pregnancy of the employee concerned is incompatible with the prohibition of dismissal in that directive. On the contrary, a dismissal decision taken between the beginning of the pregnancy and the end of the maternity leave for reasons unrelated to the employee’s pregnancy is not contrary to Directive 92/85 EEC if the employer provides well-founded grounds for the dismissal, and such dismissal is permitted by the law and/or practice of the Member State concerned.
