Employees’ disciplinary responsibility

In relation with their own employees, when there is a misconduct related to the professional activity, the employer has the right to make use of the disciplinary authority. The Labour Code provides specific clarifications regarding this situation, as well as the steps to be taken, as outlined below.

The misconduct is „an act related to work and it consists of an intentional action or inaction performed by the employee, through which s/he infringed the legal norms, the Internal Regulations, the individual labour agreement or the applicable labour agreement, the legal orders and provisions of the hierarchical supervisors”.

The disciplinary sanctions that the employers may impose will depend on the seriousness of the offence and are expressly limited to: written warning, demotion for up to 2 months, reduction of the basic salary (and/or management allowance), termination of the labour agreement. 

The employers can administer a disciplinary measure only after a prior disciplinary investigation (the written warning is the only sanction that can be applied without the necessity to initiate such procedure).

In order to conduct a disciplinary investigation, the following will be taken into account:

• After having been informed of the situation, the employer assigns a disciplinary committee (or external consultant specialised in the labour legislation);
• The written convocation of the employee, with the indication of the subject matter, date, time and place of the meeting;
• At the disciplinary session, the employee may choose to be accompanied by an external consultant specialised in labour legislation;
• The employer administers the disciplinary sanction by decision issued in writing and communicated to the employee.

A single sanction can be imposed for the same disciplinary offence, no later than 6 months after the offence has been committed.