EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH (COMMISION) IN ROMANIA AND SANCTIONS IN ROMANIA

Disciplinary misconduct is an act related to work, consisting of an action or inaction committed by the employee. This violated legal norms or internal regulations, the provisions of the individual employment contract, the applicable collective labor agreement, the orders and legal provisions of the hierarchical leaders.

The disciplinary sanctions applicable to employees are described in Article 248 of the Labor Code, namely:

1. Written warning (the only measure that can be applied without prior disciplinary investigation);

2. Relegation from office, with the award of the salary corresponding to the position in which the relegation was ordered, for a period not exceeding 60 days;

3. Reduction of the basic salary for a period of 1-3 months by 5-10%;

4. Reduction of the basic salary and / or, as the case may be, and of the management allowance for a period of 1-3 months by 5-10%;

5. Disciplinary termination of the individual employment contract.

The stages of the disciplinary research procedure are:

• Preparation of the report on committing the disciplinary offense;
• Preparation of the act of appointment of the disciplinary research commission (usually composed of 3 members)
• Preparation of the employee's summons, specifying the object, date, time and place of the meeting;
• Preparation of an explanatory note and listening to the employee;
• Preparation of the minutes of completion of the preliminary disciplinary investigation;
• Issuing a sanctioning decision by the employer, without being obliged to necessarily take into account the sanctioning proposal of the preliminary disciplinary investigation commission.

According to article 252 of the Labor Code, the provisions regarding the application of disciplinary sanctions are:

1. The employer shall order the application of the disciplinary sanction by a written decision, within 30 calendar days from the date of becoming aware of the disciplinary offense, but not later than 6 months from the date of the act.

2. Under the sanction of absolute nullity, the decision must include:

a. Description of the deed that constitutes a disciplinary violation;

b. Specifying the provisions from the staff statute, the internal regulation, the individual employment contract or the applicable collective labor contract that have been violated by the employee;

c. The reasons why the defenses made by the employee during the preliminary disciplinary investigation were removed or the reasons why, under the conditions set out in Article 251 (3), the investigation was not carried out;

d. The legal basis on which the disciplinary sanction is applied;

e. The term in which the sanction can be challenged;

f. The competent court to which the sanction can be challenged.

3. The sanctioning decision shall be communicated to the employee within 5 calendar days from the date of issue and shall take effect from the date of communication.

4. The communication shall be handed over personally to the employee, with a signature of receipt, or in case of refusal of receipt, by registered letter, at the domicile or residence communicated by him.

5. The sanctioning decision may be challenged by the employee before the competent courts within 30 calendar days from the date of communication.

Therefore, the disciplinary investigation comprises the following steps to be included in the rules of procedure:

1. Initiation of preliminary disciplinary investigation

2. Appointment of the preliminary disciplinary investigation commission

3. Convening the employee

4. Carrying out preliminary disciplinary research

5. Completion of the preliminary disciplinary investigation

At this stage, the disciplinary investigation commission will draw up an investigation report in which it will be specified if the act committed by the employee is classified as a disciplinary violation, as well as the sanctioning proposals.

The research report must also mention:

• Description of the deed committed by the employee in connection with the work and which consists in an action or inaction committed with guilt by him and the reason why the deed was classified as a disciplinary offense;
• Specifying the provisions of the internal regulation, the individual employment contract or the applicable collective labor contract that were violated by the employee, correlated, as the case may be, with the provisions of the work instructions, internal decisions, other specific documents violated / not respected by the employee;
• The reasons for which the defenses formulated by the employee during the preliminary disciplinary investigation were removed or the reasons for which the investigation was not carried out;
• The sanctioning proposal and the legal basis under which the disciplinary sanction is applied (the article in the internal regulation, corroborated with the article in Law 53/2003 republished in the Labor Code, based on which the disciplinary sanction is applied).

The concept of delisting the disciplinary sanction should also be mentioned. A disciplinary sanction not followed by another sanction for a period longer than 12 months shall be deemed to be canceled. This will be materialized in a written decision issued by the employer.

Therefore, if we have at least 12 months between one offense and another offense, we cannot discuss successive disciplinary offenses.

More info mail frjacobs@telenet.be

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