Reorganization of the company and redundancies through job cuts

When we talk about the termination of employment, the republished Law no. 53/2003 - Labour Code contains some regulations regarding the dismissal of employees determined by the termination of employment.

Thus, Article 65 of the Labour Code provides the following: dismissal for reasons unrelated to the employee's person is the termination of the individual employment contract determined by the termination of the employee's job, for one or more reasons unrelated to the employee's person, and the termination of the job must be effective and have a real and serious cause.

There is no clear regulation of how this process is carried out, so dismissed employees frequently challenge this type of dismissal in court. Therefore, based on the provisions of the Labour Code, we can only express an opinion on the steps to be taken and the supporting documents that the employer must draw up: Stage 1 - of an economic and organizational nature: reorganization of the company and Stage 2 - of a legal (labour law) nature: the actual dismissal.

Articles 66-67 of the Labour Code stipulate that this type of dismissal for reasons not related to the employee may be individual or collective, and that employees benefit from active measures to combat unemployment and may receive compensation under the terms of the applicable collective labour agreement.

Once the decision to abolish the post has been taken and the new organization chart/ new job description has been approved, it is necessary to notify the employees in writing - whether they occupy managerial or executive positions - of the job abolishment and individual dismissal, mentioning that the notice period provided for in the individual employment contract starts to run. This notice containing the notice period, which may not be less than 20 working days, is issued pursuant to Article 75 para. (1) of the Labour Code.

Upon expiry of the notice period, a decision on dismissal is issued pursuant to Art. 65 para. (1) of the Labour Code.

Author: Attorney at law, Ana Maria Nistor, Law Office Grecu & Partners.

• This is native content with Labour Law info by Grecu Partners.