Page 22 - Nearshoring to Romania
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Thus, foreign nationals working in Romania are subject to Romanian employment laws,provided
they are more favorable. (see Emergency Governmental Ordinance 56/2007 regarding the
employment and secondment of foreign persons in Romania, as amended).
When hiring a person from outside Romania, make sure that the highest educational diploma is
officially recognized in Romania (by the Ministry of National Education). If hiring from outside EU, the
procedure is more complicated. You will need to prove that nobody from inside EU can be found for the
job and you will also need to take care of the right residence and working permits. Services of
specialized lawyers are advisable in this case: these procedures may take up to 2 months or more,
requiring the collection and submission of an impressive amount of documents with various authorities.
An aspect not to be neglected in these matters is the financial part, as these services are rather expensive,
so be sure you are prepared to make such an investment in the future employee.
For employees (including expats) unfamiliar in handling with Romanian language and authorities, it
can be a hassle to obtain all required residence and working permits. There is not one central office that
handles all these formalities for international workers and it is advisable to organize a Romanian
familiar with these procedures to help.
A Dutch national working in Romania needs to have a Fiscal Code (“Număr de Înregistrare Fiscală”).
When living in Romania, you need to register and obtain a “certificat de înregistrare”.
3.3.5 Students
Romanian students often combine work and study, especially in the last years at university. Many
studies also require practical work (“practică de specialitate”) to be done at a company in the last year
of university. However, while an internship (as done in the Netherlands) is aimed at improving the
professional capabilities (organizational skills, written communication, punctuality) of students, the
contents and requirements of this “practică de specialitate” are not comparable with those of an
internship or bachelor/master thesis at a Dutch institution. In Romania, in general, this ismerely seenas
aformality. Hiring students can be very attractive because of low costs and motivated and flexible
workforce. Also, recruiting talented students during their studies is easier than recruiting them after they
have a job already. Do note that the Romanian legislation is not very suited for part-time contracts. Part-
time contracts are possible, but for instance a 50% contract is interpreted as working 4 hours per day
rather than working 2.5 days per week. Although in practice this doesn't cause any problems, clarifying
this legal conundrum would make part-time contracts more appealing to both employers and
prospective employees.
3.4 Training and development of staff
International companies are popular with Romanian workforce because of (financial) reliability and
opportunities for growth. Training is an important aspect, both internal and external ones.
For work-content-related training, training sessions inside your own company, for instance at your
corporate HQs, are often a good solution.
For training focused on specific business skills (for instance presentation techniques, communication,
sales, project management, etc.) there are specialized companies available that can take care of this.
Recommended places for certified language training are the national institutes (British Council, Goethe
Institut, InstitutFrançais).
For high-level and expensive professional training, it is a good idea to sign an agreement with your
employee to make sure they will keep working at your company after they have finished the training.
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Nearshoring to Romania, NRCC 2013