Authorities discover Romanian employer with 700 workers without labor contracts, some underage

Romanian authorities recently discovered around 700 people who worked without any legal documents at a single employer, and 54 of them were underage. The employer offers consultancy for business and management, and the Territorial Labor Inspectorate found the illegal workers between November 2012 and April this year.

Those who work with more than five people, irrespective of their citizenship, without having work contracts in place can go to jail for one to two years, according to Romanian law. Not respecting the legal age limit for employment and working with underage is also punishable by jail, of one to three years. In 2011, work inspectors found some 700 employers working with people without legal contracts, and 3,200 people working without a contract. The Romanian labor market has however improved, moving from a black market to a gray market, according to specialists, as employers fear the harsh punishment and try to at least have a work contract for the minimum work salary. A report from 2012 showed there were 2.3 million Romanians on the black labor market, which is more than one third of the number of workers in the country, and that Romania was losing some EUR 18 billion a year from tax evasion. editor@romania-insider.com