Romania's Govt. ready to pay unemployment benefits to 1 mln workers

Romania’s Government through the labour bureau (ANOFM) is ready to pay the benefits envisaged under emergency ordinance (OUG) 29/2020 to 1 million workers sent into technical unemployment by companies that face problems due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, ANOFM head Victor Picu assured, according to Economica.net.

As of Sunday, March 22, over 250,000 workers had already been sent into technical unemployment and had their labour contracts suspended, labour minister Violeta Alexandru announced.

The procedure should be straightforward, Picu assured - the companies must first get a certificate from the Ministry of Economy, though. But this is done online and on the spot for the category of firms in the sectors directly touched by the state of emergency and the military ordinances that suspend or restrict operations in some sectors, Picu claims. Then, the companies must submit the list of employees along with the certificate obtained from the Ministry of Economy.

The companies can submit the documents starting April and the first payments, for the month starting March 16 (when the state of emergency was declared) will be made during April.

However, the entrepreneurs claim that the certificate from the Ministry of Economy is much harder to obtain by the companies not directly targeted by the state of emergency - since they have to demonstrate their revenues decreased in March as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, and this will only be possible in April due to the lag between invoicing and payment.

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