OUG 32/2026: The Compliance Traps That Now Fine Romanian Employers Per Foreign Worker
Romania's new foreign-worker regime turned the employer from a bystander in an approval process into a party with continuing legal duties - before, during and after the employment relationship. The penalties are calculated per worker. Here…
Romania Insider
· Updated · 8 min read
Romania's new foreign-worker regime turned the employer from a bystander in an approval process into a party with continuing legal duties - before, during and after the employment relationship. The penalties are calculated per worker. Here is the compliance path, in the order you will walk it, and the one thing that most often separates a company that is sanctioned from one that is not.
In the months ahead, two Romanian companies will hire the same workers, in the same sector, under the same law. One will be sanctioned. One will not. The difference will rarely be luck. It will be whether the company understood, in time, where its obligations were - and acted before a gap became a penalty. That is the whole story of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 32/2026 on the access of foreigners to the Romanian labour market, which entered into force on 27 April 2026. The headline change is already well known: a new electronic platform, WorkinRomania.gov.ro, and a List of deficit occupations that decides who may be recruited at all. The change that actually costs companies money, however, is quieter. The ordinance turns the employer into a party with standing obligations and real exposure to penalties. You are no longer the passive subject of an approval procedure. And the fines are granular by design. Most are applied per foreign worker (Skilled and non-skilled), so a single bad practice does not cost you once. It multiplies across your headcount. If you employ, or plan to employ, third-country nationals, here is the compliance path, in the order you will walk it.
Step 1 - Register before you do anything No formality may begin until you are properly enrolled. Every employer that wishes to hire foreigners must first register in the electronic platform and in the Register of Employers of Foreigners. Hiring, or even starting the procedure, without that registration is itself a sanctioned breach, not a technicality. There is a second tier. An employer that wants to hire certain categories of workers directly, without going through a placement agency, needs an additional authorisation from the National Employment Agency. That authorisation is conditioned on real substance: a financial guarantee of EUR 1,000 per foreign worker, a track record of genuine activity over the preceding period in a field compatible with the relevant deficit occupation, an average headcount above the statutory threshold in the prior year, and a clean enough record on previous foreign hires - no more than a set share of them may have lost their right to stay. Decide early which tier you fall into, because the evidence each requires takes time to assemble.
Step 2 - Check the gate: is the role even eligible?
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Before you advertise or commit, confirm that the occupation appears on the List of deficit occupations. As a rule, recruitment from outside the EU can be initiated only for listed occupations. The list is updated by ministerial order and does not move at the speed of the market, so an eligible role this quarter is not guaranteed to be eligible next quarter. Treat list-checking as the first step of every hire, not an afterthought - a flawless file for an unlisted occupation goes nowhere.
Step 3 - Get the contract right The employment contract must be drawn up in Romanian and in a language the worker understands, their origin-country language, or another international language they can reasonably be assumed to follow. Pay must go into the worker's own bank account; cash arrangements are out. The ordinance also amends the Labour Code, introducing new cases in which the contract ends automatically, by operation of law, when the worker's legal status changes, and adjusting documentation requirements at hiring. The practical message: your standard template is no longer enough. The contract for a foreign worker is a distinct instrument with its own mandatory features, and getting its language, payment and termination clauses right is where avoidable fines are won or lost.
Step 4 - Train and integrate, from day one This is the step employers most often get wrong, because it has no grace period. Occupational health and safety training must be delivered in a language the worker genuinely understands, and the necessary protective equipment provided, with effect from the date the ordinance was published. A worker recruited months ago whose safety file exists only in Romanian already puts you in breach today. There is no transitional shelter for existing staff. Beyond safety, you must provide Romanian-language courses with cultural and social-integration elements, for at least six months from the start of activity and at a minimum weekly frequency. These can be delivered in-house or through accredited providers, but they are an obligation, not a perk, and, kept properly, they double as evidence of good-faith compliance.
Step 5 - Keep the file, and notify on time Compliance is proven on paper. You must retain the documents evidencing every one of these obligations - the bilingual contract, proof of bank payment, OSH training in the understood language, equipment, language courses, access to reporting procedures - for at least five years after the employment relationship ends. Build the file per worker, not per calendar year, so that on an inspection day you can produce one complete dossier rather than reassembling it under pressure. Alongside retention sit notification duties: changes in the relationship and in the worker's status must be reported to the competent authorities within the deadlines the ordinance sets. A missed notification is as sanctionable as a missing contract.
Step 6 - Plan for the exit before it happens When a contract ends, a countdown starts. The employer, or the placement agency, must work to place the worker elsewhere, presenting genuine alternative offers while the worker still has a legal right to stay; a refusal must be recorded in writing and notified. If no new employer is found within 90 days, the cost of the worker's return home falls on you. Remember too that the worker generally cannot change jobs in the first six months, except where you, the employer, are in serious breach, and afterwards only through the placement agency, up to the two-year mark. These mobility rules cut both ways: they limit the worker, but they also dictate exactly how you may lawfully let one go. Treat the end of the relationship as a compliance event to be planned, not improvised.
The sanctions map Penalties are deliberately granular, and, critically, most are applied per foreign worker, so a single bad practice multiplies across your headcount. In broad terms:
Hiring without registering / authorising on the platform — higher-tier fines per case.
Breach of core duties (bank payment, bilingual contract, OSH training in an understood language) — several thousand lei, per worker.
More than a set share of your foreign workers losing their right to stay over a rolling period, or adverse labour-inspection findings — suspension of your registration (months), halting new hires.
Figures and thresholds are those of the ordinance as published; confirm the exact amounts applicable to your situation before relying on them.
The transition reality you will actually meet One more thing no checklist captures: the rollout. The old framework was repealed in April while the new platform took months to become fully operational, the previous portal was closed, institutions have interpreted the rules unevenly across the country, and consular bottlenecks abroad delay some nationalities considerably. For pending matters, transitional rules let certain applications lodged before the changeover continue under the old regime and within set windows, a lifeline worth checking case by case. The point for an employer is simple: a blockage in the plumbing is experienced as the law. Build buffer time into every hiring plan, and document your diligence when the system, not you, is the cause of delay.
A note on workers already in your orbit If you have foreign staff whose situation has slipped out of order, often through an earlier employer's failure, not their own, the ordinance's regularisation route may apply, with a year-end cut-off and an obligation to declare the actual address to the Immigration authority within the set deadline. Acting early here protects both the worker and you, because an irregular worker on your premises is your exposure too.
Your one-page compliance checklist
Register in the platform and the Register of Employers of Foreigners - before any hiring step.
If hiring directly, secure the National Employment Agency authorisation and constitute the per-worker financial guarantee.
Confirm the occupation is on the List of deficit occupations - every time, for every role.
Issue the contract bilingually; pay salary into the worker's own bank account.
Deliver OSH training in a language the worker understands and provide protective equipment - immediately, including for existing staff.
Provide Romanian-language and integration courses (min. six months, regular weekly sessions).
Keep a complete per-worker dossier for at least five years after employment ends.
Notify status and relationship changes to the authorities within the legal deadlines.
Plan the exit: honour the 90-day re-placement duty and the mobility rules; budget for possible return costs.
Review any irregular workers for the regularisation route before the year-end cut-off.
The conclusion that matters OUG 32/2026 is still moving through Parliament, and amendments are being debated; some of today's rough edges may soften. But you cannot run a workforce on the hope of future fixes - you must be compliant now, under the text as it stands. This is where legal advice stops being a cost and becomes protection. The fine is rarely the product of bad faith. It is the product of a missed deadline, a contract in the wrong language, a safety file no one updated, a worker who changed jobs through the wrong channel, or a dossier not kept for the full five years. Each is avoidable, but only if someone reads the ordinance the way an inspector will, before the inspector arrives.
How Door to Romania can help Door to Romania advises Romanian employers on labour-migration compliance for non-EU workers - from platform registration and the National Employment Agency authorisation, to bilingual contracts, OSH and integration files, notification duties, and the exit and mobility rules that carry per-worker fines. If your company employs, or plans to employ, third-country nationals, a compliance review now is far cheaper than a sanction later. Talk to our team at office@doortoromania.com - before an inspection reads your file for you.
This article reflects the framework of OUG 32/2026 as published in Official Gazette no. 335 of 27 April 2026, and the situation observed in mid-2026, while the ordinance was still under parliamentary review. It is general information, not individual legal advice. Confirm the specific obligations, amounts and deadlines that apply to your case before acting. *This is partner content.
