Top Hiring And Training Incentives For Employers In Romania

• Published date: 15 June 2023
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Contract of Employment, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Retirement, Superannuation & Pensions
• Law Firm: Kinstellar
• Author: Mr Remus Codreanu and Lidia Zarnescu

In order to stimulate employment, the Romanian state offers employers a number of relatively easily accessible job incentive programmes.

Job incentive programmes imply accessing state aid, within the limits of budgetary funds, with the aim of creating new jobs and, respectively, of stimulating the employment of categories of people considered vulnerable.

As these programmes are not well known or used in practice, this article aims to present the main incentives available to employers for hiring or training new employees.

I. Incentives to encourage the employment of unemployed persons+

Law no. 76/2002¹ establishes a series of incentives to encourage employers to hire unemployed people.

In order to benefit from these incentives, employers must in principle:

• conclude an agreement with the territorial employment agency in whose area they are based ("AJOFM") with a view to employing persons protected by law;
• communicate job vacancies to the AJOFM;
• not have been in an employment relationship with the persons employed in the categories concerned in the last two years;
• not be a shareholder/director of other employers who have benefited from such incentives, in the case of persons whose employment relationship with the employer who benefited from the incentives has been terminated by resignation or by agreement of the parties within the last two years.

In addition, employers must maintain the employment relationship with the unemployed employees for a certain period of time stipulated by law (usually at least 18 months). Otherwise, if they proceed with dismissal for reasons not attributable to these employees, the employers may be obliged to reimburse the full amount received, plus the reference interest rate of the National Bank of Romania ("NBR").

1. Incentives for hiring graduates

Employers who hire, for an indefinite period of time, graduates of educational institutions who did not have an employment or service relationship at the time of graduation will receive for a period of 12 months (or 18 months in the case of disabled graduates) an amount of RON 2,250 per month (approximatively EUR 450 per month) for each graduate employed.

In addition, employers who continue to employ graduates beyond the standard 18-month employment period will receive, for each year of continued employment or service, a financial contribution equal to the amount of the paid employment insurance contribution that the employer is required to pay for these persons.

2. Incentives for...