If an employee or a former employee is confronted with irregularities in the workplace, he or she has the right to refer the matter to the Territorial Labor Inspectorate (ITM). This institution has the role of verifying compliance with employment legislation and sanctioning any irregularities found.

Submitting a complaint or petition to the ITM can be an effective way of resolving problems relating to the individual employment contract, working conditions, health and safety at work or non-payment of wages.

1. Among the most common situations that can be the subject of a complaint are:

– failure to comply with the provisions of the individual employment contract: failure to pay salary entitlements on time and in full, failure to pay overtime, unilateral modification of contractual clauses (function, workplace, salary) without following the legal procedure, failure to respect working and rest time (rest leave, weekly rest).

– undeclared work: performing an activity without having an individual employment contract in written form and registered in the General Register of Employees or with a part-time employment contract, although in reality the work is full-time.

– Inadequate working conditions: failure to comply with health and safety at work, lack of personal protective equipment, exposure to unassessed and unforeseen hazards or risks.

– Workplace discrimination: any form of discrimination on grounds of sex, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

– workplace harassment: moral or sexual harassment.

– non-payment of allowances: sick leave allowance, parental allowance, secondment allowance etc.

2. The procedure for lodging a complaint with the ITM is quite simple and can be done in several ways:

a. The complaint can be sent by post, with acknowledgement of receipt, to the address of the competent territorial ITM.

b. The complaint can also be sent by e-mail, as most of the territorial labor inspectorates also accept complaints sent in electronic format, to the official e-mail addresses available on their websites. 

c. Online, through a form for petitions and complaints that you can fill in on the Labor Inspectorate website: https://www.inspectiamuncii.ro/petitii-si-sesizari 

In order for the complaint to be considered and solved efficiently, it must contain certain essential elements, such as identification data: full name and surname, home/residence address, telephone number and, optionally, e-mail address, identification data of the employer complained, detailed description of the facts complained, mentioning concrete data (periods, amounts, names of persons involved, if applicable) and specifying what is requested from ITM.

3. Duties of inspectors and what they check:

a) control of the application of general and special legal provisions in the fields of labor relations, occupational health and safety and market surveillance;

b) controls the establishment and granting of the rights due to the employees deriving from the law, from the applicable collective labor contract and from the individual labor contracts;

(c) monitor the application of measures to ensure equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women;

d) ensure at national level the record of work performed on the basis of individual employment contracts, through the general register of employees, as well as the record of day laborers and the beneficiaries of their services;

e) controls the use of the labor force in order to identify cases of undeclared work;

f) receives and transmits in a computerized system, through the territorial labor inspectorates, the data submitted by employers and beneficiaries on employees and day laborers;

g) ensures the registration of collective labor contracts at the level of the units and verifies their provisions, according to the procedure approved by the State Inspector General, and conciliates labor conflicts triggered at the level of the units;

h) controls, within the legal employment relationship based on an individual employment contract, the compliance with the legal regulations regarding the establishment and guaranteed payment of the minimum gross basic salary, provided by normative act or by the applicable collective labor contract;

i) controls, within the legal employment relationship not based on an individual employment contract, the compliance with the legal regulations regarding the establishment and guarantee of payment of the basic wage/remuneration provided for by normative act or by the applicable collective agreement/labor agreement.

After registration of the complaint, according to Ordinance no. 27/2002, the ITM has the legal obligation to analyze it and communicate a response within the legal deadline, which is 30 days from the date of registration. If the issues raised by the petition require more detailed information and research, ITM may extend the deadline by a maximum of 15 days.

Following the complaint/ petition, ITM inspectors may carry out a check at the premises of the employer complained against. Depending on the findings, they may order measures to remedy the irregularities and may impose fines.

It is important to note that the ITM does not settle labor disputes, which are the responsibility of the courts, but checks compliance with labor legislation and takes administrative measures. However, the ITM’s findings may constitute important evidence in a possible court case.

Author: Atty. Felicia Cioflan