The suspension of the individual employment contract implies, in fact, a suspension of its main effects for a period of time that lasts until the employee returns at his job, a period in which no activity is carried out and the employee will not be paid.

It should be noted that the suspension by law is applied by law and the causes leading to this stage of the contract are independent of the will of the parties and make it impossible to perform the work. According to art. 50 of Law no. 53/2003 - The Labor Code, republished, with the subsequent amendments and completions, the individual employment contract is suspended by law in the quarantine situation.

Thus, we mention that, during the suspension of the individual employment contract, certain rights and obligations of the parties may continue if they are provided by special laws, by the applicable collective labor agreement, by individual employment contracts or by internal regulations.

For example, according to art. 18 and 20 of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 158/2005 on medical leave and allowances, in order to prevent illnesses and the recovery of the work capacity, the insured persons can benefit for leave and allowance for quarantine. Quarantine leave and allowance are granted to insured persons who are prohibited from continuing the activity due to a contagious disease, for the duration established by the certificate issued by the public health directorate.

The gross monthly amount of the quarantine allowance represents 75% of the calculation base that is determined as the average of the gross monthly income for the last 6 months from the 12 months from which the contribution period is constituted, up to the limit of 12 gross minimum wages per month, based on which the insurance contribution for work is calculated.

According to art. 60 of Law no. 53/2003 - The Labor Code, republished, with the subsequent modifications and completions, the dismissal of the employees cannot be ordered during the suspension of the activity as a result of the establishment of quarantine.

The individual employment contract may be suspended at the initiative of the employer in case of temporary interruption or reduction of the activity, without terminating employment, for economic, technological, structural or similar reasons.

In this situation, the employees will be available to the employer to resume the activity with the cessation of the reasons that caused the suspension of the individual employment contract.

In the case of technical unemployment, the employer has two possibilities:

• • the corresponding reduction of the salary, in case of the reduction of the work program from 5 days to 4 days per week, for periods exceeding 30 working days, until the situation that caused the reduction of the program has been remedied, after consulting the representative union from the unit level or of employees' representatives, as the case.
• • granting the employees an allowance, paid from the salary fund, which cannot be less than 75% of the basic salary corresponding to the job occupied, during the reduction and / or temporary interruption of the activity, for the employees involved in the reduced activity or discontinued, no longer active.

The dismissal for reasons not related to the employee represents the termination of the individual employment contract caused by the cancelation of the workplace occupied, for one or more reasons unrelated to the employee.

The cancelation of the workplace occupied must be effective and have a real and serious cause.

• • the cause is real when it is objective and makes it impossible to continue the employment relationship, without harming the employer,
• • the cause is serious when the reasons for dismissal are not related to the person of the employee and the measure taken by the employer exclusively aims to improve the activity.

For example, the economic difficulty faced by the company may be a real cause.

The fired employees for reasons not related to their person benefit from active measures to combat unemployment and can benefit from compensation under the conditions provided by Law no. 53/2003 - Labor Code, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions and the applicable collective labor agreement.

The dismissal for reasons other than the employee's person may be individual or collective.

The collective dismissal depends on the total number of employees and the number of employees fired within a period of 30 calendar days, for one or more reasons not related to the employee's person.

When determining the effective number of employees dismissed collectively are taken into consideration those employees who have terminated individual employment contracts at the initiative of the employer, for one or more reasons, unrelated to the employee, provided there are at least 5 redundancies.

The provisions regarding collective dismissal (art. 68-73 of Law no. 53/2003 - Labor Code, republished, as amended and supplemented) do not apply to employees from public institutions and public authorities.

Also, the provisions regarding collective dismissal do not apply in the case of individual employment contracts concluded on a fixed-term basis, except where such dismissals take place before the expiry date of these contracts.

• • through the Order of the Minister of Labor and Social Protection, social protection measures are established for employees and their families from the economic sectors whose activity is affected or stopped totally or partially by decisions of public authorities, during the period of emergency;
• • central and local public institutions and authorities, autonomous administrative authorities, autonomous administrations, national companies and companies in which the state or a territorial -administrative unit is unic or majority shareholder, private equity companies, introduce, where possible, for the period state of emergency, work at home or teleworking, by unilateral act of the employer;
• • by exception from the provisions of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 regarding the leave and the monthly allowance for the raising of children, the entitled person keeps the incentive of insertion, in case of losing the job as a result of the effects of the Covid epidemic 19;
• • the applications for social benefits and benefits can be submitted electronically.