According to the Law no. 53/2003 on the Labour Code, the employee is entitled to annual rest leave in order to recover his/her working capacity. According to art. 144 para. (1) of the Labour Code, the right to paid annual rest leave is guaranteed to all employees, and according to para. (2) of the same article, the right to annual rest leave may not be subject to any assignment, waiver or limitation.

The minimum duration of the rest leave is 20 working days, and the actual duration of the rest leave shall be established in the individual employment contract, in compliance with the legal provisions and collective labour agreements.

Employees who work in difficult, dangerous or injurious conditions, blind people, other disabled people and young people up to the age of 18 shall be granted an additional rest leave of at least 3 working days, the number of working days for the additional rest leave for the categories of employees referred to in paragraph 1 shall be at least 3 working days. (1) shall be determined by the applicable collective labour agreement and shall be at least 3 working days.

Employees undergoing an in vitro fertilization procedure shall benefit annually from an additional paid rest leave of three days granted as follows: 1 day from the date of the ovarian puncture and 2 days from the date of the embryo transfer. The request for additional rest leave shall be accompanied by a medical letter issued by the specialist doctor, in accordance with the law.

Public holidays on which no work is performed and paid days off as established by the applicable collective labour agreement are not included in the duration of the annual rest leave.

In determining the duration of annual rest leave, periods of temporary incapacity for work, periods of maternity leave, paternity leave, maternity risk leave, leave for the care of a sick child, carer’s leave and the period of absence from work for unforeseen circumstances caused by a family emergency due to illness or accident shall be considered as periods of work performed.

If temporary incapacity for work or maternity leave, maternity risk leave or leave for the care of a sick child occurred during the annual rest leave, it is interrupted, and the employee must take the rest of the leave after the temporary incapacity for work, maternity leave, maternity risk leave or leave for the care of a sick child has ceased, and when this is not possible, the days not taken are rescheduled.

The employee is also entitled to annual rest leave in cases where temporary incapacity for work continues, under the law, for the entire period of a calendar year, the employer being obliged to grant annual rest leave within a period of 18 months starting from the year following the year in which he was on sick leave.
Rest leave is taken every year, and if the employee, for justified reasons, cannot take all or part of the annual rest leave to which he/she was entitled in the calendar year in question, with the consent of the person concerned, the employer is obliged to grant the untaken rest leave within a period of 18 months starting from the year following the year in which the entitlement to annual rest leave arose.
Employees working in difficult, dangerous or harmful conditions, blind people, other disabled people and young people up to the age of 18 are entitled to additional rest leave of at least 3 working days.

The number of working days of additional rest leave for the categories of employees referred to in paragraph 1. (1) shall be determined by the applicable collective labour agreement and shall be at least 3 working days.
The rest leave shall be taken on the basis of a collective or individual schedule drawn up by the employer in consultation with the trade union or, where appropriate, the employees’ representatives, in the case of collective schedules, or in consultation with the employee in the case of individual schedules. Scheduling shall take place by the end of the calendar year for the following year.
Collective scheduling may establish leave periods of not less than 3 months per staff category or job. Individual scheduling may determine the date of the leave or, as the case may be, the period during which the employee is entitled to take the leave, which may not exceed 3 months.
Within the periods of leave determined in accordance with paragraph 1, the period of leave may not exceed three months. (2) and (3), the employee may request leave at least 60 days before the leave is taken.
In the case of split scheduling of leave, the employer is obliged to schedule the leave in such a way that each employee takes at least 10 working days of uninterrupted leave in a calendar year.

The employee is obliged to carry out the rest leave in kind during the period in which it has been scheduled, except in situations expressly provided for by law or when, for objective reasons, the leave cannot be carried out.
For the period of rest leave, the employee is entitled to a leave allowance, which may not be less than the basic salary, allowances and permanent bonuses due for the period in question, provided for in the individual employment contract.
The rest leave allowance shall be the average of the daily salary entitlements referred to in paragraph 1. (1) of the last 3 months preceding the month in which the leave is taken, multiplied by the number of days of leave. The rest leave allowance shall be paid by the employer at least 5 working days before the leave.
Rest leave may be interrupted at the employee’s request for objective reasons. The employer may recall the employee from rest leave in case of force majeure or urgent interests requiring the employee’s presence at work. In this case, the employer is obliged to bear all the expenses of the employee and his/her family necessary for the return to work, as well as any damage suffered by the employee as a result of the interruption of the rest leave.

Author: Madalin Macovei