Employee dismissal in Romania is lawful only when the employer relies on a ground recognised by the Labour Code and follows the procedure attached to that specific ground. A genuine business reason is not enough if the required notice, investigation, evaluation, consultation or written decision is defective.

This guide is intended for Romanian companies, foreign investors, HR teams and managers considering an individual or collective dismissal. It reflects the structure of the Romanian Labour Code and highlights the points that most often create litigation risk. For advice on a particular case, see our Romanian employment law services.

Is every employment termination a dismissal?

No. Under Article 58 of the Romanian Labour Code, dismissal is the termination of an individual employment contract at the employer’s initiative. It may be based on reasons related to the employee or on reasons unrelated to the employee.

Dismissal should not be confused with termination by mutual agreement, resignation, expiry of a fixed-term contract, termination by operation of law or written termination during or at the end of a probationary period under Article 31(3). Termination during the probationary period is a distinct mechanism, separate from dismissal. Each route has different conditions. Relabelling a unilateral dismissal as a “mutual termination” does not make it consensual; genuine agreement must exist.

Legal grounds for employee dismissal in Romania

The main grounds are divided between reasons related to the employee and reasons unrelated to the employee. The required evidence and procedure differ substantially.

When is dismissal prohibited?

Before any employee dismissal in Romania, the employer should check both Articles 59 and 60 of the Labour Code. Article 59 prohibits dismissal on protected grounds, including protected characteristics, trade-union membership or activity, lawful participation in a strike and the exercise of specified employment rights. Article 60 creates temporary prohibitions during specified periods, including certified temporary incapacity for work, quarantine, maternity leave, parental leave, leave to care for a sick child, annual leave, paternity leave, caregiver leave and certain emergency family absences. A pregnant employee is protected if the employer knew of the pregnancy before issuing the decision. Separate anti-discrimination and retaliation rules may also apply under Law no. 202/2002 and the Whistleblower Protection Law no. 361/2022.

The protected-period analysis should be made immediately before the dismissal decision is issued and communicated. Article 60 also contains an exception linked to judicial reorganisation, bankruptcy and dissolution of the employer, but it should be applied only after checking the employer’s precise legal status and the special insolvency rules.

Does every dismissed employee receive 20 working days’ notice?

No. Article 75 grants a minimum notice period of 20 working days for dismissal due to medical unfitness, professional inadequacy and redundancy under Articles 65 and 66. It does not create a universal notice period for every type of dismissal. In particular, disciplinary dismissal does not carry the same statutory notice entitlement.

The notice period and its start date should be documented clearly. Employers should not assume that paying an equivalent amount automatically remedies a failure to observe the statutory notice period. If the parties want a negotiated exit with compensation, that should be structured separately as a genuine mutual termination agreement.

How does disciplinary dismissal work?

Employee dismissal in Romania based on misconduct is the most procedure-sensitive route. Before imposing it, the employer must ordinarily conduct the prior disciplinary investigation regulated by Article 251. The process should include a written summons specifying the subject, date, time and place of the meeting, a real opportunity for the employee to present explanations and evidence, and a documented assessment of the defence.

The sanction must also be proportionate. Article 250 requires the employer to consider factors such as the circumstances of the misconduct, degree of fault, consequences, the employee’s general conduct and any previous disciplinary sanctions. A finding that misconduct occurred does not automatically justify dismissal if a lesser sanction is proportionate.

The disciplinary decision must be issued in writing within 30 calendar days from the date the employer became aware of the misconduct, but no later than six months from the date of the act. It must contain all mandatory elements under Article 252 and be communicated within five calendar days of issue. Read our dedicated guide to the disciplinary procedure in Romania.

Evidence that usually matters

• the internal regulation, policies and lawful instructions allegedly breached;
• proof that the employee received or could access those rules;
• emails, access logs, reports, witness statements or other lawfully obtained evidence;
• the summons, interview record, employee’s written defence and supporting documents;
• a reasoned proportionality assessment; and
• proof of issuing and communicating the final decision within the statutory periods.

How should professional inadequacy be documented?

Professional inadequacy concerns the employee’s ability to meet the professional requirements of the role; it is not a disciplinary accusation. Article 61(d) provides the legal ground for dismissal, while Article 63(2) requires the employee to undergo a prior evaluation under the procedure established by the applicable collective labour agreement or, in its absence, the internal regulation.

The evaluation should rely on objective, role-related standards communicated in advance. The job description, performance objectives, prior reviews, training records and concrete work results should tell a consistent story. A hastily created evaluation standard or a process designed around one predetermined outcome is vulnerable to challenge.

Before dismissal, Article 64 requires the employer to offer available positions compatible with the employee’s professional training or, where relevant, work capacity. If no suitable vacancy exists, the employer must seek the support of the territorial employment agency. The employee has three working days to express written consent to an offered position.

What is required for medical-unfitness dismissal?

Medical unfitness under Article 61(c) cannot rest on a manager’s impression or an ordinary performance assessment. It must be established through a decision of the competent medical bodies. The employer must then follow the compatible-vacancy process under Article 64 and grant the minimum statutory notice.

This ground should also be kept distinct from disability discrimination and reasonable workplace accommodation issues. Medical information must be handled with particular attention to confidentiality and data-protection requirements.

When is redundancy lawful?

Employee dismissal in Romania for redundancy is governed principally by Article 65. It is lawful when the employee’s position is effectively eliminated and the elimination has a real and serious cause unrelated to that employee. The employer does not have to prove that dismissal was the only imaginable business choice, but it should be able to show that the reorganisation is genuine and that the eliminated role no longer exists in substance.

A defensible file commonly includes the competent corporate decision, the business rationale, organisational charts before and after implementation, the updated headcount and job descriptions, financial or operational supporting material where relevant, and evidence that the employee’s duties were genuinely removed or redistributed.

A changed job title alone is not decisive. Courts can examine whether a supposedly eliminated position continues in substance or is promptly refilled under a different label.

Where only some identical or comparable positions are removed, the selection issue requires particular care. In Decision no. 30/2020, the High Court declined to rule on the merits and dismissed the recurs în interesul legii as inadmissible. It held that the question concerned applying the law to specific facts rather than resolving a genuine issue of legal interpretation. The decision therefore did not unify the divergent lower-court approaches described in the referral on whether selection criteria are required when an employer eliminates only some positions from a group of identical or similar positions. As a risk-management measure, any criteria used should be objective, consistently applied and supported by evidence.

Employers planning a broader reorganisation may also consult our guide to employee rights during company restructuring in Romania.

When do collective-dismissal rules apply?

A redundancy programme can become a collective dismissal if, within a period of 30 calendar days, the statutory thresholds in Article 68 are reached.

For threshold calculations, certain other employer-initiated terminations for reasons unrelated to the employee may also be counted when the statutory conditions are met. Fragmenting one programme into several documents or dates does not necessarily prevent the collective rules from applying.

The employer must begin consultations with the trade union or employee representatives in good time, provide the written information required by Article 69 and genuinely examine ways to avoid or reduce dismissals and mitigate their consequences. If the programme proceeds, the territorial labour inspectorate and territorial employment agency must receive the statutory notification at least 30 calendar days before dismissal decisions are issued, subject to the detailed Labour Code procedure.

What must the written dismissal decision contain?

The applicable deadline and the mandatory content should be analysed separately. Article 62 establishes the deadline for issuing decisions based on Article 61(b)–(d) and also requires the decision to state its factual and legal reasons, the challenge period and the competent court. Article 76 sets out the other mandatory elements applicable to dismissal decisions, while Article 252 contains the specific requirements for disciplinary decisions. Depending on the case, the written decision should include:

• the factual and legal reasons for dismissal;
• the duration of the notice period, where applicable;
• the collective-dismissal selection criteria, where applicable;
• the list of available positions and the Article 64 response period, where applicable;
• for a disciplinary sanction, the mandatory elements in Article 252, including why the employee’s defence was rejected; and
• the statutory challenge period and competent court, where required.

The decision produces effects from communication to the employee. Communication should therefore be provable. The employer cannot ordinarily defend the case by introducing new dismissal reasons that were absent from the decision.

What are the main employer risks if the dismissal is unlawful?

A failure to comply with the legally required procedure results in absolute nullity under Article 78. Under Article 80, if the court cancels the dismissal, it orders compensation equal to the indexed, increased and updated salaries and the other entitlements the employee would have received. At the employee’s request, the court also restores the parties to the position existing before dismissal by ordering reinstatement.

Employment disputes move quickly and the employer bears the burden of proof under Article 272. A disciplinary decision may be challenged within 30 calendar days of communication under Article 252(5). For most other dismissal-related employment disputes, employees generally have 45 calendar days to challenge the measure under Article 268, calculated from the date on which the person concerned became aware of it, subject to the specific provisions applicable to the type of claim.

Additional exposure may arise from discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, unpaid rights, data-protection violations, collective consultation failures or inconsistent treatment of comparable employees.

A practical pre-dismissal checklist for employers

1. Identify the legal route. Confirm whether the case is dismissal, mutual agreement, resignation, expiry, probationary termination or another statutory form.
2. Check protected status. Verify leave, medical incapacity, pregnancy notifications, representative status, whistleblowing and discrimination risks.
3. Confirm decision-making authority. Make sure the correct corporate or managerial body approves the measure.
4. Audit governing documents. Review the employment contract, job description, internal regulation, policies and collective agreement.
5. Build the evidence file. Preserve documents lawfully and avoid post-hoc rationales.
6. Run the ground-specific procedure. Investigation, professional evaluation, medical decision, vacancy search or reorganisation documentation cannot be interchanged.
7. Check collective thresholds. Look at the complete 30-day programme, not only one employee or one department.
8. Calculate notice correctly. Apply it only where legally required, but do not shorten it.
9. Draft and quality-check the decision. Confirm every mandatory element, factual statement, date and attachment.
10. Plan communication and litigation readiness. Retain proof of delivery and a complete, chronological file.

If employment status itself is uncertain, first review our analysis of employee versus contractor risks in Romania. For prevention at the hiring stage, see our guidance on employment contracts in Romania.

Frequently asked questions

Disclaimer: This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. The correct procedure depends on the dismissal ground, employment documents, employee status and facts of the case.

AI Notice: AI-assisted content, reviewed and approved by a qualified Romanian lawyer.

Workplace investigations in Romania should separate what happened, whether a workplace rule was breached and what response is proportionate. Treating an allegation as established misconduct, or sanctioning an employee before giving a genuine opportunity to respond, can undermine an otherwise legitimate employment decision.

This guide is for Romanian employers, foreign-owned companies, HR teams and managers handling complaints, misconduct allegations, harassment concerns or possible disciplinary action. It should be read together with the Romanian employment law services page and the separate employee dismissal guide.

What is a workplace investigation in Romania?

A workplace investigation is a structured process for establishing facts relevant to an employment decision. It may concern alleged misconduct, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, conflicts of interest, misuse of company systems, confidentiality breaches or safety incidents.

The first fact-finding stage is not automatically the disciplinary investigation regulated by Article 251. The employer should define the mandate, preserve relevant records, identify conflicts of interest and decide whether the matter is a grievance, a safeguarding issue, a possible disciplinary offence or a combination of these. A complaint is an allegation, not a finding.

When is a formal disciplinary investigation mandatory?

Article 251 generally requires a prior disciplinary investigation before any sanction other than a written warning. This applies when the employer is considering a demotion, suspension, disciplinary dismissal or another statutory disciplinary sanction. A management conversation cannot replace the procedure.

What are the employee’s rights during the investigation?

The employee should know the subject of the investigation, receive a written summons stating the subject, date, time and place, and have a meaningful opportunity to explain their position. Under Article 251, the employee may formulate and support defences and may be assisted by a trade-union representative or colleague.

If the employee does not attend without an objective reason after a lawful summons, the employer may continue under the statutory conditions. The absence does not itself prove the allegation. The file should preserve the summons, delivery evidence and any explanation for non-attendance.

How should evidence and confidentiality be handled?

Evidence should be relevant to the defined allegation and obtained through authorised channels. Employers should check who may access HR files, whether monitoring policies were communicated, how long records must be retained and whether access can be limited to the investigation team.

The GDPR does not prevent a workplace investigation, but it requires a lawful, fair and proportionate approach. Sensitive information, health data, recordings and messages involving third parties require particular care. A review of the employer’s workplace data-protection controls may be needed alongside the employment analysis.

How is a disciplinary sanction chosen?

Article 250 requires an individualised proportionality assessment. The employer should consider the circumstances of the act, the employee’s degree of fault, the consequences, general conduct and previous disciplinary sanctions. The same rule breach may justify different responses depending on intent, repetition, actual harm, training and whether the rule was clear and accessible.

Disciplinary fines are prohibited. A sanction should not be disguised as an unlawful salary deduction or informal penalty. The written decision should explain the reasoning rather than merely reproduce the allegation.

When can disciplinary dismissal be used?

Disciplinary dismissal under Article 61(a) is reserved for serious misconduct or repeated breaches of workplace discipline. It requires the prior disciplinary investigation and a written, reasoned decision complying with Articles 247–252. There is no general rule that a lesser sanction must always be issued first, but the seriousness and proportionality of dismissal must be demonstrable on the facts.

The employer should not use disciplinary dismissal to solve a redundancy, professional-inadequacy or performance-management problem that belongs to a different legal route. The legal ground determines the evidence and procedure. See also the guide to employee dismissal in Romania.

What deadlines and decision content apply?

The disciplinary sanction decision must ordinarily be issued within 30 calendar days from the date the employer became aware of the misconduct, and no later than six months from the act. It must be communicated within five calendar days of issue. The employer should preserve proof of both issuance and communication.

What are the most common employer errors?

• starting with a conclusion and collecting only incriminating material;
• using a generic summons that does not identify the subject of the hearing;
• denying reasonable preparation time without documenting the reason;
• ignoring the employee’s written defence;
• imposing a disciplinary fine or unlawful salary deduction;
• missing the 30-day or six-month deadline; and
• using a disciplinary route for a redundancy or professional-inadequacy case.

Practical checklist for employers

1. Define the allegation, scope, persons involved and immediate risks.
2. Preserve relevant evidence through authorised and proportionate channels.
3. Appoint an impartial investigator and record the mandate.
4. Summon the employee in writing with the subject, date, time and place.
5. Hear the employee and assess the defence and proposed evidence.
6. Apply the Article 250 proportionality factors.
7. Issue and communicate a complete written decision within the statutory deadlines.

Frequently asked questions

This article provides general legal information based on Romanian law. The applicable procedure depends on the facts, employee category, internal documents, evidence and current legislation. It does not replace advice on a specific workplace investigation or disciplinary decision.

AI Notice: AI-assisted content, reviewed and approved by a qualified Romanian lawyer.