Law 53/2003 – Labour Code regulates overtime as follows:
Article 120 (1) – Work performed outside the normal weekly working hours, provided for in Article 112, is considered overtime work.
Article 112 (1) – For full-time employees the normal working time is 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.
Article 122 (1) Overtime work shall be compensated by paid time off within 90 calendar days after it has been performed.
(2) Under these conditions, the employee shall receive the appropriate pay for the hours worked over and above the normal working hours.
Article 123 (1) – If compensation by paid time off is not possible within the period provided for in Article 122 (1) in the following month, overtime shall be paid to the employee by adding an increment to the salary corresponding to its duration.
(2) The bonus for additional work, granted under the conditions provided for in para. (1), shall be established by negotiation, within the framework of the collective labour contract or, as the case may be, the individual labour contract, and may not be less than 75% of the basic salary.
Therefore, overtime is compensated in priority with paid time off as provided for in the above-mentioned legal provisions and only if compensation with paid time off is not possible, the bonus of at least 75% is granted.
It is considered that it is to the employee’s advantage that additional work is compensated with adequate time off because the authority’s recovery takes precedence and only in the case of the impossibility of granting time off to grant additional time off.
Therefore, waiving this right, even if there is an agreement with the employee, is not in accordance with the provisions of the Labour Code.
We also draw your attention to the fact that, according to Article 260 letter i) of Law 53/2003 – Labour Code, failure to comply with the provisions on overtime work is a contravention and is punishable by a fine from 1,500 lei to 3,000 lei for each person identified as providing overtime work.
It is true that, in practice, many companies pay overtime directly and even consider it to be to the advantage of employees, but failure to comply with the legal provisions by giving priority to the granting of adequate time off could be sanctioned by the Labour Inspectorate.